Next to Normal (@N2NBroadway) continues to break new ground online.
Back in May, I wrote about how the show was giving a complete performance on Twitter. After the performance was done, the cast and crew took questions from their Twitter followers and then reversed the roles and asked their followers a bunch of questions.
Now the show’s Tony Award winning song writers Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey are writing a new song with input from the Twitter followers. The experiment began on August 11. The first thing to do was pick the character or characters that would get the song. After getting a huge number of replies, Kitt and Yorkey worked the list down to five choices they felt were the best. The Twitter audience voted and suddenly Gabe and Dr. Madden had a new song.
Personally, I put out there that Natalie and Gabe should get the song, but that didn’t make the cut of choices. No matter, I think the Gabe/Dr. Madden combination is a great choice and it is what I voted for.
Over the past couple days the discussion has turned to where in the show this song should go. The Twitter audience once again sent in suggestions and the writers are mulling them over. I think we get to vote on this within the next couple of days.
Work continues on the song into September with the end goal having a public performance of the song October 28 during On Stage with Next to Normal at 92nd Street Y in Tribeca (We’ve just bought our tickets for this event and are looking forward to it). The song, even though it won’t go into the actual show, will also be recorded and made available for download.
It’s fascinating interacting with a show this way. Folks are taking notice too as the show’s Twitter efforts were written up in the New York Times‘ Technology section last week. You can get in on the action too by following @N2NBroadway on Twitter.
