THE NORMAL HEART Broadway Run 'Likely' in 2011

On October 18, the Joel Grey-directed, 25th anniversary staged reading of Larry Kramer's ground-breaking play, The Normal Heart, earned a heartfelt standing ovation at the Walter Kerr Theatre. The reading starred Glenn Close, Victor Garber, Jason Butler Harner, John Benjamin Hickey, Joe Mantello, Jack McBrayer, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Patrick Wilson in the one-night-only event that raised $150,000 for The Actors Fund and Friends In Deed. 

As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Kramer has hopes that the show be produced in full-scale on Broadway.  He tells the New York Times in an e-mail: "When I walked in and saw that back wall with the names, which is what we had originally in 1985, I couldn't believe it. Daryl Roth is one phenomenal producer. I wish this production could go on somehow!"

Today, the New York Times reports that Kramer, alongside producer Daryl Roth, indeed intend to revive the production in full scale on Broadway, with Joe Mantello once again in the role of Ned Weeks and Joel Grey at the helm. Says Roth: "We are now working on putting all the elements together, working on budgets, inquiring if the appropriate theater would be available, cast availability, schedules, et cetra." The production would likely begin a limited run in March or April of 2011.

To read the full report in the New York Times, click here.

The Normal Heart focuses on the terrifying early years of the AIDS epidemic in New York and the criminal silence of official America in dealing with it. First produced by Joseph Papp and directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg for New York's Public Theater, The play was a critical sensation and ran for 294 performances.

Having been a part of the original production of The Normal Heart at The Public Theater, in which he played the role of Ned Weeks, Mr. Grey has special insight into the play, as well as a passionate commitment to the piece and to the issue it revolutionized: the AIDS epidemic. This reading comes on the heels of the sold-out, acclaimed reading of The Normal Heart at Los Angeles' Geffen Playhouse in May, which was also directed by Mr. Grey.

Frank Rich in the New York Times wrote of the original production, "The stage seethes with the conflict of impassioned, literally life-and-death argument." In his Newsweek review, Jack Kroll called it, "Extraordinary ... a fierce and moving human drama." Other responses included Liz Smith in the New York Daily News: "An astounding drama ... a damning indictment of a nation in the middle of an epidemic with its head in the sand. It will make your hair stand on end even as the tears spurt from your eyes;" while legendary director Harold Prince stated, "I haven't been this involved - upset - in too damn long. Kramer honors us with this stormy, articulate theatrical work."

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/WM Photos