Normal Heart or iHo?

[proportionalquotient]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 4:08pm

I'm looking for suggestions about wheather to see The Normal Heart or iHo...I only have time to see one of them.

iHo seems to be getting a mixed response. I don't mind the length of it, so long as it's engaging.

Normal Heart is getting flack for not clairifying if it's a staged reading. I suspect it's likely they won't read from a script, yet I wouldn't be upset if they did.

In any case, looking forward to hear your thoughts...

[scott68]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 5:07pm

Speaking personally, I'm more excited for The Normal Heart. The cast is amazing, I love the play, and I only heard good things about the reading it's based on from last October.

I've heard that iHo is "worth seeing, but messy," which doesn't exactly thrill me.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 5:19pm

The Normal Heart. Yes, iHo has the cache of being the new Tony Kushner play, and yes, it's quite good, but... speaking personally, The Normal Heart is one of the things I love most in the world. I find its power nearly incomparable. Even if it is a staged reading, go. Go go go. It will destroy you, in the best possible way that theater knows how. Go.

[proportionalquotient]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 5:31pm

Whoa, those were impressive endorsements (especially you, luvtheEmcee - they should use your message in promos!)

Thanks

[noahrp3]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 5:37pm

Wow. Normal Heart does sound great. I'm trying to figure out how to fit it in to my trip too. Trying to decide between Normal Heart, Jerusalem, and Sister Act.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 5:39pm

Hahah, they should! And my soon-to-be plane ticket receipts? I exaggerate none. That play changed me, which I would only say about a very small number of things. (I've been talking to a lot of people about it lately and they're like, wow, that's high praise from you. But it's true!)

The Normal Heart and Sister Act: Broadway's apples and kittens.

Updated On: 4/13/11 at 05:39 PM

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 5:51pm

I've heard so many wonderful things about THE NORMAL HEART both on the page and stage, but I have not seen it to offer a comparison.

That said, iHo put me on the floor and left my head reeling and my heart pounding like no play (or production) in recent memory. I'm still shaking it off and would gladly watch it 10 more times. In fact, I'm already trying to figure out how I can get back and see it again before it closes. Lots of people have said that it's "messy." I'm not entirely sure what that means. It's epic and loud and full of tangents, yes. If that's messy, then messy it is, because it's full to bursting with ideas and emotions in the same way AiA is. But never is it sloppy, cumbersome, or abstruse.

Could it be cut down from its current 3:45 running time? Absolutely. There are swaths of its text that could go and serve to streamline the characters' intertwining journeys. But to me, the amazing thing about Kushner is that his even his most "extraneous" bits are 10 times more exhilarating than most playwrights' entirely essential bits, and the pleasure is in hearing a master dialectician and storyteller at work. God, those speeches! I'll take messy Kushner over tidy Kushner any day of the week... because I believe his grand "messiness" is the yin to the yang of his nuanced humanity and character detail. It's also (with one small exception) astonishingly (and I don't use that word lightly) performed.

Not for a single second was I less than 110% engaged, and nearly 4 hours sailed by. I actually felt depressed when it ended. (And my mother, who doesn't know Karl Marx from Zeppo Marx, was transfixed and speechless afterwards.)

THE NORMAL HEART may be every bit as marvelous. I can't say. It has quite a legendary reputation, and I look forward to it. But anyone interested in contemporary theater would, I feel, being doing him or herself a disservice to miss iHo.

(Re-reading what I've just written, it's almost embarrassing, how over-the-top it sounds. For what it's worth -- which may be nothing to a stranger -- I consider myself to be a discerning, sometimes hypercritical, theatregoer. But I stand by every word.)

Updated On: 4/13/11 at 05:51 PM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 5:57pm

I read a post last night saying it's been cut down to a little over three hours.

anyone interested in contemporary theater would, I feel, being doing him or herself a disservice to miss iHo.

To be fair, while I agree, I'd say the same thing about The Normal Heart. I liked iHo a lot and as a Kushner fanatic I'm glad I saw it, but my feelings about The Normal Heart are pretty much where your enthusiasm for iHo is. No matter what, the OP is going to have a tough choice to make. NYC is an embarrassment of riches this spring.

(I will stop now. )

Updated On: 4/13/11 at 05:57 PM

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 6:02pm

You said it, Emcee

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 6:28pm

Just to play Kushner's advocate for a minute:

You could opt to see the first New York production of a still-developing play by one of the most important working playwrights of the past quarter century. Or you could see the best thing Larry Kramer will ever write: a 26 year old stage roman à clef.

[proportionalquotient]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 6:51pm

I'm impressed with how people have described their experiences with these shows! You know what? Originally, one "slot" for my trip was reserved for GOOD PEOPLE, but I think I'm going to pass on it and see NORMAL HEART & iHO instead. You've got me so excited!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 10:17pm

On the other other hand, GOOD PEOPLE does sound, well, good.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 10:19pm

I didn't get to see Good People, but I consistently hear great things. See? Embarrassment of riches! It's wonderful, just not for people who only have limited time in town.

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 10:30pm

I haven't seen Heart or iHo, but I found Good People to be a stunning piece of new theatre with a brilliant central performance by McDormand. I think it even stands a chance of getting a Pulitzer. I wouldn't miss it. I do realize that choices this year have been tough. There are SO many good things running right now.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/13/11 at 10:41pm

PS (in my own head that just sounded like Sassy Gay Friend). I love this line: "I'll take messy Kushner over tidy Kushner any day of the week... because I believe his grand 'messiness' is the yin to the yang of his nuanced humanity and character detail."

[themysteriousgrowl]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 7:55am

lol @ Namo; perhaps I'll start a BWW knock-off web-short series

Since GOOD PEOPLE has been brought into this conversation a few times now, I'll offer an opinion which is a little against the grain in terms of how it's been received, generally. (Bear in mind, however, that I saw a *very* early preview... the second or third performance, iirc.) GOOD PEOPLE is a perfectly diverting way to pass 2 hours. It's a tidy, swift, and mostly perceptive piece of writing that appealed to my inner white/middle-class/liberal guilt.

But I didn't walk out of the theater feeling like DL-A had anything particularly incisive or interesting to say on the subject of class. Okay, class issues run deeply in America, and in cities like Boston even especially; our choices are often a function of class, and those choices can define our lives; revising one's own history is no substitute for reaching towards inner truths. Those are all valid and smart themes for the social realism school; Frances McDormand turns in a solid (if -- I felt -- also a very safe) performance; the supporting cast is uniformly fine.

Though I did have some issues with the structure of the story's Act 2 revelations and though it occasionally veered towards Lifetime MOW on a couple of occasions, ultimately, all of its ducks fall into line nicely. But I didn't take a single thing out of the theater with me. All the hoopla and raves were -- and still are -- a surprise to me. And I've read the reviews and the comments and can't wrap my head around what others seemed to get out of it that I seem to have missed because all the reviews and comments also describe the exact same play that I saw. It's a good play. In a different season, I'd absolutely recommend it. In this season, I'd recommend quite a few things before it.

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 9:57am

Good People was the only play I have seen this year thus far (which will change this weekend), but so that may negate my opinion since I haven't seen what are perhaps "better" plays, but, to me, Good People was just such strong writing. It was dramatic but also bitingly funny. Every character in the large ensemble was memorable and served a purpose (even the ex-boss character who's name is slipping my mind at the moment becomes less of a peripheral character at the end when he *SPOILER* gives Margie the rent money). Each time I thought I had the play and its characters figured out, it morphed on me. For being so unabashedly simple in its scope, I found it to be so complex and tortuous. I really did think it was incredible, and I'm sure it helped that each of the actors was terrific.

[jbm2]

Posted: 4/14/11 at 8:29pm

How long is IHO running now??