THE NORMAL HEART Reviews- Page 7

[dreaming]

Posted: 6/19/11 at 11:08am

I must say I've seen Rylance in a few shows now and can't say I enjoy watching him-it's a personal thing. I don't like actors who can't just 'be' the role-who need to remind me that they're acting, just like you said, adamgreer. Mantello's style is so incredible-he just IS the role. And he never acts the same way twice-I've seen the show a couple times now and he never gives the same performance-it's not as calculated, which is more exciting.

[AC126748]

Posted: 6/19/11 at 11:10am

Exactly, Dreaming. Exactly.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/19/11 at 11:13am

I didn't get to see Jerusalem, and in some ways I'm almost glad I didn't see Rylance, because, yeah, having seen Mantello I wish he had won, but at least I just see it with a disappointment that he didn't -- not that frustrating bafflement that feels so awful. Because I know if I had seen both performances, I'd feel that way, too.

I don't know what I would do if I still lived in New York. Probably move in and go on some kind of weird binge of theatrical masochism. Those of you who are there to go often, please just love it with everything you've got. I wish I could.

[Gypsy9]

Posted: 6/19/11 at 1:52pm

Having been away from this Board for some time, I am just now getting around to reading this complete thread, from the almost unheard-of unanimous raves (save the Wall Street Journal), to the many comments of those many Board members who obviously were blown away by both the original production and now by the current production of THE NORMAL HEART. How I wish I lived closer to NYC so that I could see it. Is there any chance that the production might extend it's run through December, which is the next time that I could be there? THE NORMAL HEART seems to be obligatory theatergoing for anyone who cares about the theatre and who cares about humanity.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/19/11 at 1:53pm

Unfortunately Mantello said the show must close next month as scheduled.

[charlesjguiteau]

Posted: 6/19/11 at 3:41pm

Love seeing this thread back on the first page again. My husband and I saw Normal Heart on Friday June 10th, followed by Jerusalem at the Saturday matinee on the 11th. Absolutely no comparison between the two plays or the 2 lead performances. Jerusalem was for us a collection of characters in desperate search of a play, and Mark Rylance could only do so much singing and dancing in a part that was essentially flailing around in a great void.

The Normal Heart on the other hand was superb on every front. Stunning to see that a play written as a political act in 1985 could be still seen as a timely call to arms in 2011 as WELL as a singular piece of true theater that belongs among the great works of literature of the 20th century. We were endlessly moved by Joe Mantello's every minute onstage, along with John Benjamin Hickey and especially the much-maligned Jim Parsons. Dazzling performances all.

We share with some of the posters here a more measured appreciation of Ellen Barkin's work. Impressed but not moved by her monologue of inexorable anger that wore us down but did not quite make us feel in our gut.

We were absolutely dazzled by the simple beauty of the white box that David Rockwell created to perfectly hold this play. [SPOILER ALERT] We therefore had quibbles with his choice (or George Wolfe's) to start flying in black velour panels to cover the set in mourning by the end of Act II. Did anyone else find it much harder to see the actors faces once we were peering at them through the black gloom? And while we're listing quibbles, we gave up trying to make sense of the random groupings of cast members scattered here and there around the periphery of the space as the night wore on. If they were there to represent the growing number of AIDS victims who'd died, didn't the simple and terrifying multiplying of names projecting on the walls tell that story so much more effectively?

Quibbles aside, it is clear we were moved as we seldom are by an evening of theater. Anyone who misses this production will be missing one of the greats.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/19/11 at 3:48pm

I won't lie, there's a part of me that's thinking about flying home to be there for the last performance. I can't afford it and I can't take a day off from work, but what I wouldn't give. It's just never enough.

For what it's worth, speaking for myself, I was never maligning Jim Parsons. At all. Nor do I think the others involved in that discussion were; it was a frustration with the way people were behaving about him. I thought he was wonderful.

Updated On: 6/19/11 at 03:48 PM

[SNAFU]

Posted: 6/19/11 at 3:56pm

Charles, I believe the concept of having the cast members on stage was to show that these character's world was closing in on them. Becoming more and more claustrophobic.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/19/11 at 4:02pm

And for the audience, too, you see right there who it's impacting. You can't lose site of that when on the periphery of those scenes are characters you've spent time coming to care about. I think it sends all of those words home that much more.

[orangeskittles]

Posted: 6/19/11 at 5:41pm

Joe Mantello isn't doing anything until Other Desert Cities, he could extend.

"Weird binge of theatrical masochism" should be on the marquee. I can't stay away, and yet every time, I wonder why I do this to myself.

[BroadwayGirl107]

Posted: 6/19/11 at 9:11pm

I have to jump in on the Rylance comments...I think Mark Rylance is one of the best actors on the planet. A total ham, I agree, but I am absolutely flabbergasted every time I see him perform, and I just don't know how he does it. And while I would say he's probably a more skilled and commanding actor than Mantello, I think Joe Mantello is giving one of the most devastating and passionate performances I've ever seen in The Normal Heart. I would have loved to see Mantello take this home, but I can't say Rylance doesn't deserve it. It was an amazing category this year, and I think all of the men gave extraordinary performances that are absolutely Tony-worthy.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/19/11 at 11:32pm

I wish Mantello would continue working onstage. He keeps saying how much he didn't miss it, but I feel like many of his missed him. With his two Broadway roles, Louis Ironson and Ned Weeks, he has come to occupy a space in my imagination as the contemporary urban gay man. He's one of the people who can get me to go see a show I have no desire to see by virtue of his choice to be in it.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 6/19/11 at 11:38pm

He belongs on stage, no doubt about it.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/19/11 at 11:40pm

I think I am going to have to start wearing reading glasses. So many of my posts have the wrong words in them. I feel like many of US missed him!