The Normal Heart
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Cititour.com Review
It’s a rare occasion when a playwright’s voice is absorbing when utilizing a play as a personal soapbox, but such is the case with Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart.” Originally produced at the Public Theatre when the AIDS crises began, and exponentially spread throughout the land, this brilliant revival co-directed by Joel Grey and George C. Wolfe is exceptional in presenting, not just an angry historical overview, but an evocative and heart wrenching story of human frailty and desperation.
This superb production boasts an ensemble cast with searing performances including Joe Mantello as Kramer’s alter ego, the abrasive Ned Weeks, who spearheads a movement and is subsequently pushed aside for those more politically adept. Mantello is a powerful presence on stage, so full with emotion and anguish that it’s impossible not to weep for him. But then again, “The Normal Heart” offers more than a few of these emotional outbursts including a masterful Broadway debut from Ellen Barkin as the paraplegic physician treating men dying of an unnamed, and unfunded, disease which everyone, from the mayor of New York City to the President of the United States, refuses to acknowledge exists.
Mark Harelik, as Ned’s attorney and straight brother, inhabits a character given an opportunity to change his attitude over time and he moves with assurance. John Benjamin Hickey, as Ned’s partner, is ever so tender. It’s clear that Ned is the love of his life. Patrick Breen, Lee Pace, and Jim Parsons, (“The Big Bang Theory”) in his Broadway debut, all do a phenomenal job here as volunteers struggling to help their loved ones as they battle Ned on the direction that their campaign for help and awareness should take.
David Rockwell’s setting of a stark white box is deceptive in its simplicity. It’s an allegory for the emptiness the characters feel, and for the bleak future that they, and the world face, if governments continue to turn away. It’s used to flash the names of those who have died. That statement alone is overwhelming.
When you leave the theatre after seeing “The Normal Heart” you’re handed a flyer with a letter from the playwright. In it, he states that to date there are 35 million deaths from AIDS worldwide. When the action in the play begins, there are 41. It’s a chilling statistic. And “The Normal Heart” is a call to arms, masquerading as an extraordinary production.
By Lesley Alexander
Visit the Site
http://www.thenormalheartbroadway.com
Cast
Joe Mantello, John Benjamin Hickey, Ellen Barkin, Lee Pace, Jim Parsons, Patrick Breen, Luke McFarlane, Mark Harelik, Richard Topol, Wayne Wilcox
Open/Close Dates
Opening 4/19/2011
Closing 7/10/2011
Box Office
212-239-6200
Theatre Info
John Golden Theatre
252 West 45th Street
New York, NY 10036
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