Tony Award Countdown: 30 Years In 30 Days, THE NORMAL HEART's Larry Kramer Keeps Fighting The Fight, 2011
By: Michael Dale Jun. 08, 2016
Welcome to BroadwayWorld's Tony Award Countdown: 30 Years In 30 Days, a look at some of the Tony Awards' most memorable moments from the past three decades.
Larry Kramer's THE NORMAL HEART might rightfully be called the most significant work of political theatre ever produced on the American stage. Based on the playwright's frustrating experiences in trying to acquire government support to investigate why so many gay men were being stricken with an unimaginable disease in the early years of the 1980s, Kramer's anger and the urgency with which he was trying to get his message across flew off of every page.
When THE NORMAL HEART opened at the Public Theater in 1985 Frank Rich wrote in his New York Times review, "The playwright starts off angry, soon gets furious and then skyrockets into sheer rage." Still, there were a great many Americans who thought of AIDS as a gay disease not worthy of their time. Some saw it as God's way of ridding the world of homosexuals.
A 2010 staged reading directed by Joel Grey, who was a replacement actor in the original production, transferred to Broadway, but with Grey starring in ANYTHING GOES at the time, George C. Wolfe was brought in as co-director. Joe Mantello played activist Ned Weeks, modeled after Kramer, and Ellen Barkin and John Benjamin Hickey won Tonys for their supporting performances.
When the production was nominated as Best Revival of A Play, there was some concern that Kramer may let some of that righteous anger loose if he was given the opportunity to speak before a nationally televised audience, but when THE NORMAL HEART did take the prize, the playwright eloquently offered love and support as a senior statesman of the Gay Rights Movement.
The American Theatre Wing's 70th Annual Tony Awards, hosted by Tony Award winner James Corden, will air on the CBS Television Network on Sunday, June 12, 2016 (8:00-11:00 PM, ET/delayed PT) live from the Beacon Theatre in New York City.
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