The Normal Heart's final performance tonight

[Broadwaygal5]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 10:43am

Anyone going?

[CockeyedOptimist2]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 10:47am

Just checked on telecharge and I'm so pleased that it's sold out! Enjoy, those of you who will be there!

[yeah]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 11:29am

What a beautiful piece of work "The Normal Heart" is. Enjoy the final night of a wonderful production!

[alliez92092]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 11:32am

I saw the show Tuesday night and have not stopped thinking about it. What a brilliant production. Here's to a great final performance, but the power and story will continue to live on and resonate.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 11:38am

It hurts so much not to be able to be there tonight. If I were in town, I wouldn't have missed it. But I'm grateful to have been able to see it at all. I promised a few curious posters I would post something, and then I just somehow lost all the words. Maybe I still will, though it will be absurdly overdue.

I can't believe it's over. I can't believe it happened. I've been wishing for this for years. This play means the world to me, and I loved it more than I can say. To anyone involved who may be reading: thank you for this.

[AC126748]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 11:55am

It was a once-in-a-lifetime production, and I will miss it terribly. I'm glad I was able to see it twice. Here's hoping that this won't be Joe Mantello's last time on stage as an actor.

[tking001]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 12:05pm

I saw the show for the first and only time on Thursday night
It was the most powerful thing I've seen in a long time. I think it was the most powerful straight play I've ever seen. It does what real theater should do, makes you think. It was very eye opening for me about a story I thought I knew, I guess I never really knew how big of an impact the HIV/ aids crisis had on people. Even from hearing about it the show really opened my eyes to how bad it really was and how people weren't caring that people were dying.
I feel so honored to of had the chance to see this show
I also thought it was really interesting that they gave out larrys letter
The letter is also really powerful
Overall great show and I feel lucky to have been able to see it.
Any news of future productions of this show?
I so wish this production would extend
I guess I'm really glad I got to see it once
Thank you Larry Kramer and to everyone involved in The Normal Heart

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 12:11pm

A beautiful piece of art. So glad that, thanks to the Tony Award attention, it has played its final month to the audiences that it deserved.


I'll chime in with a great big thank you to all involved. Bravo!

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 12:47pm

tking, wow, your post reminded me so much of myself the first time I saw it. I came away from it feeling those very same things. Thanks for sharing that.

I remember when I first saw it in 2004, people here were telling me how glad they were that I had gone, and that it had opened my eyes to so much about theater and about this history. Now feel l like I'm seeing it from the other side -- I'm so glad that more people in my generation, and so many young people in general, are seeing and loving it. I don't think there's anything you want more for a play you love.

Someone who goes tonight, applaud like mad on my behalf, please.

[Blockhead24]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 1:06pm

I'll be there tonight but I really don't want to go. I don't want to see this show close, you know? So grateful that I was able to see it as many times as I did and for everyone involved.

[songanddanceman2]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 1:30pm

I Wish it could carry on, i hope it comes back soon, i hope even more that it comes to the UK

[mc1227]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 11:09pm

Tried my best to get a single ticket for either performance today and had no luck. I'm so bummed...I hope it was a magical night for everyone there.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 11:17pm

Who went tonight? Was it electric? Was the cast on fire? Was it so emotional? Did the actors cry?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 11:44pm

I wasn't there but have a feeling the report goes something like this:

Tonight's closing performance of The Normal Heart was the 14th I've seen since this spring and by far the best. Entrance applause for everybody including that one guy who leaves at the beginning and I don't think he ever comes back until the curtain call.

The overall feeling was one of utter love and trust between what is easily the best ensemble in the history of showbiz. The impending sense of doom, which is so intense in the show, seemed to be as much "about" the AIDS epidemic as it was about a different kind of death, the "death" of a theater family that has come together as co-workers for paychecks and leaves with a bond almost deeper than blood relatives. Those of you who have seen the show (Normheads, like me), know exactly what I mean. The fate of someone like Felix takes on an even deeper resonance when you know that Tony winner John Benjamin Hickey was portraying the character for the last time. It made it even sadder.

Mantello was of course the perfect glue, the irascible captain who held the crew together. Barkin's amazing speech was more amazing than ever, if that's even possible, and literally stopped the show for what literally felt like an amazing 5 minutes of applause including some people who gave it a standing o. It was amazing. Jim Parson was somehow even more poignant tonight than he has ever been, and it felt as if The Normal Heart Journey, the one on stage and the one to GET the show on stage, had a particularly poignance for him in some way.

Naturally, the curtain call went on forever with hugs and tears. Everyone was surprised when they brought Larry Kramer up for a curtain speech. It's 11:45 now and he's not quite half-way through, but everyone is still in the theater, hanging on his every word and surrounding him with love for documenting documentable history in this way.

Long live The Normal Heart and god bless Larry Kramer!!

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/10/11 at 11:56pm

Even the Twizzlers they sold tasted better, sweeter or even bittersweet one might say, since they would never be tasted again during the run of this show. No - this was not a show. This was LIFE. And like The Normal Heart, it is now over. Theater is dead.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 12:01am

(I will say this as a parody caveat: I did see a performance and I am very glad I did. I still had problems with the Kramer POV, most baldly articulated in the speeches yelled by Dr. Emma Brookner, but I felt George C. Wolfe found ways to spotlight other parts beautifully and to almost -- ALMOST! -- mitigate Kramer's "the glass is half empty and leaking" worldview. My parody was just a parody of closing night reportage. Though I do imagine the Kramer curtain speech is ongoing.)

Now I got a hankering for a Twizzler.

[egnarotsew]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 1:06am

FindingNamo, your report is pretty spot on except that Larry Kramer's speech was only about five minutes, if that.

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 1:14am

I'd love to know what he said. Or even hear it, if there's some saintly soul out there who could make that happen.

[egnarotsew]

Posted: 7/11/11 at 1:21am

I'm sorry, I have a pretty terrible memory but he did talk about the original production and how it was turned down so many times before someone decided to do it. He wished that Joseph Papp was able to be there and he thanked Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Joel Grey and George C. Wolfe who were all there. He also of course thanked the actors, all of whom were on stage while he was speaking.