Understudies match their main-cast counterparts every step of the way in the smash hit intimate revival of Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s Next To Normal now playing at the Pico Playhouse.

Leading lady Selah Victor gives a career-best performance as Diana, radiating so much sunlight in manic mode that her descent into depression is all the more devastating, and she nails the Diana’s vocal challenges every bit as splendidly as she plays her.

Andrew Arrow provides powerful support as Dan, a man simply doing his best to cope. Megan Fleming’s heartbreakingly angry, hurt, forgotten Natalie proves especially stunning after her deliciously ditzy Carla in In The Heights. Nick McKenna follows his scene-stealing Enoch Snow in Carousel (at UCLA, where he’s currently a junior) with a Gabe who not only sings like an angel, he looks exactly how we’d imagine Victor’s Diana’s teenage son to be. Danny Potter’s adorable nerd of a Henry is everything Natalie could wish for in a beau. And main cast member Randal Miles turns out to be the luckiest musical theater performer in town, playing dueling doctors in both casts.

Next To Normal has been extended through October 8, but these wonderstudies are scheduled for just one more Saturday matinee. Can we get an understudy extension?