"The Normal Heart"- (5/1) --

[Testing1232]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 6:11pm

Just got home.... I am speechless !! This one will stay with me for a very long time - The best play that I have ever seen !

Really no words, and there are not enough accolades that could do this production justice. Kudos to everyone involved !

[nealb1]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 6:16pm

How wonderful. I'm seeing it tonight - in about 45 minutes. Can't wait.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 6:16pm

Want. to. get. on. plane. right. now.

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 6:30pm

I agree so much, Emcee. I want to schedule a trip just to see this now, even though that's totally unfeasible. Praying for an extension...

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 6:38pm

I'm definitely making one, I just have to figure out when. I refuse to miss this.

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 6:43pm

It's amazing how quickly something can become must-see. I was in town the weekend before it started previews and didn't think I'd be missing anything. Now I'm dying because I probably won't be able to see it unless it extends into August or September.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 6:56pm

I don't think it's so quick. I think people have been waiting a long time for this, so it's not all bandwagon hopping.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 7:03pm

Unless you're a Jim Parsons fan.

[Testing1232]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 7:12pm

Parsons WAS great-- the entire cast was--- Honestly, hearing
Ellen Barkin's 2nd Act monologue was worth the price of admission !! I have never heard an audience erupt like that during a play !!! MUST. GO. BACK. !!!

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 7:21pm

I guess I just mean it wasn't really on my radar until people on here starting raving. I knew it was a good play, but perhaps it was the threat of the actors-on-book thing that made me wary.

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 7:22pm

So Larry Kramer has never written another play-is this it?

[Testing1232]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 7:25pm

The only other play that I have seen (and I have loved many) that comes close was "A:OC", but in terms of just raw emotion, nothing can top this show. Its an unforgettable EXPERIENCE!

[ACL2006]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 7:54pm

with the raves it got, plus it is selling pretty well, is there a good chance this extends??

[Chrysanthemum62001]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 7:55pm

I loved it so much. So special and uniquely different from the last production I saw that it makes it nearly impossible to compare the two. I'm thrilled so many people are talking about this play. I can hardly remember the buzz that surrounded the 2004 production at the Public, but it seemed people either loved it or hated it. Where as here, considering the celebrity cast, it seems more people are seeing it who wouldn't as a general rule go and see such a play. There is a particular creative choice in this production that I thought was such a clever and powerful way to tell the story. Brilliant.

[topherkraz78]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 9:23pm

Jordan, what is your problem? Hate the guy? What? I mean you are the one dropping his name not me or Pomita or whomever, get over yourself or whatever problem you have and stop trying to antagonize us because we actually like a certain actor.

Now, I too am trying to work something out to go see this and only this. I am looking maybe at July 2nd.
Updated On: 5/1/11 at 09:23 PM

[April Saul]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 11:00pm

I saw the staged reading so was going to skip this, but thanks to this board and All That Chat, got a TDF ticket to see it this evening. WOW...Mantello was already good at the reading, but now it's truly amazing. Everyone was terrific, and Barkin's speech made me cry...there was weeping all around me, as people were filing out afterward, you could hear a pin drop! And thank you TDF, for putting me in the front of the orchestra, so I could be even closer to the emotion of it all.

This one really is essential.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 11:10pm

I also saw the show tonight, for the second time. It was jsut as brilliant and heart-breaking as it was the first time. Everyone in the cast, from Mantello right down to Wayne Wilcox, they were all phenomenal.

Barkin's big monologue got huge applause.

I predict justly deserved Tony Awards for Mantello, Barkin, and John Benjamin Hickey.

It's such an intense production, and it's incredibly emotional, yet I want to keep seeing it.

Just a brilliantly intense evening.

[Kad]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 11:12pm

I'm just the opposite, adamgreer- despite the fact I think this was the best play I have seen in years, I cannot bring myself to even want to see it again.

[adamgreer]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 11:26pm

I can TOTALLY see why people would not want to see this more than once. It's a lot to take- and both times I've seen it, the theater has exited in complete silence.

But...I just don't think there's better ensemble acting anywhere on a NY stage right now.

[americanboy99]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 11:32pm

I saw it last night and honestly, I haven't ever been so affected by a piece of theatre in my life. I saw the show alone, and the experience was truly paralyzing.

I've never cried so hard at a show. My body was broken. It's a beautiful piece of theatre.

[hotjohn]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 11:39pm

I also saw the play this afternoon - for what it's worth, here is my review that I posted on my thread on the West End board:




THE NORMAL HEART
Golden Theatre, Sunday May 1st 2011

I saw Larry Kramer's play, twice, 25 years ago in London at The Albery Theatre (now The Noel Coward). It starred Martin Sheen and Tom Hulce, the real reasons I went to the play, and it could be the most important play I have ever seen in that it, more than anything, opened my eyes to the growing AIDS crisis.

It seems odd to me and slightly shocking that only this week this modern masterpiece of American theatre received its belated Broadway premiere. A starry cast featuring faces best known from popular television shows (Lee Pace from "Pushing Daisies", Luke MacFarlane from "Brothers And Sisters", Jim Parsons from "The Big Bang Theory") will hopefully attract the crowds but the acting plaudits surely go to Ellen Barkin, in her Broadway debut and the magnificent Joe Mantello as Kramer's stand-in Ned Weeks. Mantello, a distinguished and successful award-winning director, returns to acting after a short twenty five year break! His performance is incandescently powerful, so detailed and naturalistic, the like of which you feel blessed to have witnessed.

I was particularly pleased to see a family with three teenage children in the theatre - obviously the parents had decided that, the odd rude word aside, their children need to take on board the powerful and important messages this play imparts - if only all parents could be half as insightful.

[nealb1]

Posted: 5/1/11 at 11:59pm

WOW!!! A completely brilliant, emotional and out of body experience to see this play tonight.

There was not a dry eye in the house when the show was over with. I was so emotional - like with so many other people, it brought back to the surface all of the emotions of remembering what it was like when friends were dying and there was nothing that you could do about it. As I was getting out of my seat, wiping the tears from my face, the very nice man next to me, simply patted me on the back. The audience was one - everyone was on the same emotional roller coaster.

So gut wrenching......so honest and so real. I'll never forget it.

[Blockhead24]

Posted: 5/2/11 at 12:19am

I was a bit wary of seeing the show again tonight after seeing the first preview but man am I glad I did. This show and cast are beyond words.

Singling out Mantello for just a second, it is quite an honor and privilege getting to see him act. He's incredible.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 5/2/11 at 12:34am

So Larry Kramer has never written another play-is this it?

His other major play is The Destiny of Me, which is the companion piece to The Normal Heart; it's basically the "sequel," but it's mostly done in flashback. He also has some short plays in the collection Women in Love.

Updated On: 5/2/11 at 12:34 AM

[MadonnaMusical]

Posted: 5/2/11 at 12:37am

Agreed with EVERYONE! Hands down the best thing I saw all season... I was a bloody bawling mess... cried hysterically... even after people started exiting the theatre I was still sitting there crying..... a girl outside told Larry Kramer that she had never cried so hard in her life ... and he said "That's why I wrote it."

Agree about Ellen Barkin... she stopped the show... hope she wins the Tony....

Joe Mantello is great... it's a close call though between him and Mark Rylance...