Next to Normal Tops Billboard's Cast Album Chart

The original Broadway cast recording of new hit musical Next to Normal rose to the top of the Billboard cast album chart this week. The double-disc album, featuring original cast members J. Robert Spencer, Jennifer Damiano, Aaron Tveit, Adam Chanler-Berat, Louis Hobson and Alice Ripley, also placed in the 21st spot on Billboard’s digital chart and broke the Top 200, landing at #103. The show is currently playing at the Booth Theatre.

The album’s success follows closely on the show’s well-received live performance at the 2009 Tony Awards on June 7, where the production nabbed three trophies for Best Score, Best Orchestrations and Best Actress in a Musical. The recording, available from Ghostlight Records and produced in part by Grammy winners Kurt Deutsch and Joel Moss, was first released digitally on April 7, followed by in-store distribution on May 12. Broadway.com exclusively covered the recording of “Superboy and the Invisible Girl” during the show’s February 11 and 12, 2009, recording session.

Next to Normal explores how one suburban household copes with crisis. The musical, which showcases over 30 original songs by composer Tom Kitt and lyricist Brian Yorkey, depicts how far two parents will go to keep themselves sane and their family’s world intact. Next to Normal, directed by Michael Greif, debuted at off-Broadway's Second Stage Theatre on February 13, 2008. It was then reworked in a subsequent engagement at Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage before opening on Broadway on April 15.