5/5 AMAZING Show!
  by K. Vancko (Irvine, CA USA)
First of all, I'd like to make it clear that I do NOT recommend this CD if you haven't seen the show. The CD gives away some things about the show that I think it's better to find out during the show.

Next to Normal is the best musical I've seen in the last couple years. It's incredibly moving and definitely sad at times, but the music is amazing and the cast is wonderful. I highly recommend seeing the show and then buying the CD! Or buying the CD and not listening to it until you see it (my best friend does that a lot).

1/5 OMG This is Awful
  by raybee
This is by far some of the worst music I have ever heard in any genre in all of my life. It's unbelievably ugly, trite, insipid, amateurish and just plain horrible.

5/5 One of the best shows and cast recordings in years!!
  by Dijou (Los Angeles, CA)
Within the first 10 minutes of seeing "Next to Normal" I was completely captivated and listening to the cast recording brings me right back. This is driving, powerful, emotional, intense, moving music to match a story that's the same. See the show and buy the cast recording - they are both unforgettable!!

5/5 most unusual musical
  by Dennis Aron (Skokie, IL USA)
Highly Recommended!

I bought this to listen to the show while listening and overcome my usual hearing problems so that I'd not miss anything when I went to see the actual play, which was on Saturday. Both the sound track and the play are spectacular. This is another example of understanding of the effects of mental illness on the victims and their families. A Beautiful Mind comes to mind, not that the stories are at all similar, but that you begin to understand and feel the pain. Masterful!

Hint, the notes to the CD have an announced spoiler alert. take it to heart as I think I would have rather experienced that which was spoiled while listening. So just skip to the lyrics, listen and enjoy.

To some extent, if you're going to see the play, the CD is a bit of a spoiler, because the staging is really terrific and you'd be better off being surprised. The offset of that is that, even if you hear well, there are several segments in the play when multiple people are singing different lyrics (i really find that annoying as I think that almost all hearing people can't understand those sequences, much less we deaffies) that you can understand if you're reading along with the lyrics (duh).

4/5 Better than normal
  by Dr. Michael Callahan (Auburn, CA)
The recording runs over two hours and sometimes becomes a bit banal, but overall it is a challenging, intriguing work, full of great moments. Alice Ripley won the Tony for best actress and the score also won--both well deserved.