REVIEW: ‘The Normal Heart’ pounds with anger over AIDS

Larry Kramer drama returns in a boldly-acted revival led by Joe Mantello, Ellen Barkin and Lee Pace

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

BROADWAY REVIEW

An angry, anguished play, “The Normal Heart” depicts those terrifying times in New York gay circles during the first years of the AIDS plague when everyone’s friends and lovers were horribly dying and nobody knew why or how and the rest of the world didn’t care.

First staged in 1985, Larry Kramer’s stormy drama opened on Wednesday in an urgently-performed Broadway production at the Golden Theatre.

As one who lived through that dark nightmare, I cannot tell how Kramer’s semi-autobiographical story registers with younger viewers, of course, but certainly can tell them that the play and this production vividly recreates the feelings of ignorance and denial that swirled through those dreadful days.

The words “I don’t know” relentlessly repeat in the text because nobody – doctors, victims, gay activists and the public at large – knew what AIDS was and how monstrous the epidemic would be.

Spotting the iceberg early is Ned Weeks, the Cassandra-like central figure of “The Normal Heart,” a cantankerous writer who strives to wake up a diffuse, semi-closeted gay community to the imminent danger in 1981. Ned soon organizes an advocacy group but his confrontational ways eventually offend potential allies and alienate his comrades. In the midst of his crusade, prickly Ned falls into a happy relationship with a sweet fellow who then is stricken with the virus.

The conclusion is bleak and the death toll keeps on multiplying.

Bitter with screeds about the homophobic failure of government and the media to recognize the crisis, the play also assails the health care system and promotes gay marriage. So Kramer’s 25-year-old work remains topical even as its story somewhat has congealed into historical drama.

Fortunately, an excellent cast breathes great life into their characters and melts the play’s stiffer nature into compelling theater.

Returning as an actor after more than a dozen busy years as a much-in-demand director, Joe Mantello gives an impassioned account of Ned that reveals this driven man’s vulnerable qualities lurking beneath his fire-eating exterior. Ellen Barkin is sharp as an astringent doctor who turns sour under unbelievable stress. Lee Pace, Patrick Breen and Jim Parsons provide distinctive performances as men dealing with the horror as best they can. John Benjamin Hickey is heartbreaking as the journalist who loves Ned.

Directed by George C. Wolfe and Joel Grey (who took over the role of Ned from Brad Davis during the original run), the production clearly is a labor of love. Under their guidance, the company’s acting is bold and powerful, with a genuinely raw edge to its emotions that rubs the starch out of the play’s overtly socio-political contents. The look is appropriately stark, with a white box of a set subtly designed by David Rockwell that gradually grows darker with the play’s mounting toll of mortality.

“The Normal Heart” continues through July 10 at the Golden Theatre, 252 W. 45th St., New York. Call (212) 239-6200 or visit www.thenormalheartbroadway.com.