The Normal Heart- Page 2

[Corine2]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 11:56am

Namo
How can you say that? It is not over till there is a cure!

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 12:00pm

Good god. Did you see me write ANYWHERE in my post that it's over? Christ, is there anything you can't respond to with an inapplicable sound bite?

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 12:01pm

over? did you say over? nothing is over until we decide it is! was it over when the germans bombed pearl harbor? hell no, and it ain't over now. cuz when the going gets tough...the tough get going!

[Corine2]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 12:02pm

Sorry Namo,
But I really hope they can find a cure. Everyone has to realize that AIDS is a reality and more needs to be done. Updated On: 4/12/04 at 12:02 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 12:03pm

Wow. You're the first person who has actually ever said they hope they find a cure. I hope you become a spokesperson, a mascot if you will, for that very issue.

I reiterate. In the US, AIDS is CAPITALIZED Corine.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 12:05pm

see, corine, AIDS, isn't a word, it's an acronym for Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

[robyn525600]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 1:54pm

I am going May 15th - CAN'T WAIT!

[johnoed]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 2:49pm

I just saw the revival of "The Normal Heart" at the Public Theatre and it was amazing!! I'm not really a crier but I brought along three tissues just in case. By the middle of the third act the tissues were completely used.

My advice to anyone going...just bring the whole box of Kleenex. The entire cast was so amazing. This is such a heart gripping true historical story of one man begging for someone in power to acknowledge the growing epidemic.

I've found myself crying hours after the show and now that it's Monday a day after I saw it I've already broken down twice and cried. Not something you would really like to do in an open office.

I truly don't know how they get back up and do it every night. I saw the 2PM Sunday Matinee and I couldn't believe that in just a few short hours they were going to take the stage again.

Thanks,
Jonathan

[Rypm25]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 4:48pm

I saw the show on Saturday evening. The cast was very moving, and I was so happy to finally see Joanna Gleason perform live! I also, was moved to tears by the end of the play!

[Ruffian]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 4:52pm

I dont go for a few weeks, I am gonna explode waiting for the day

PATIENCEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[MusicMan]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 5:36pm

Saw it at the dress. The play still holds up and is still relevant in the light of the gay marriage controversy. On second thought, let me revise that--it's actually less a play than a series of tirades---but its passion still communicates. It put me in the mind of Ibsen's problem dramas. However, it would be even more effective if the supporting characters (who figure prominently in the play) were more strongly drawn. For example, the audience is simply not invested sufficiently in Bruce's offstage relationship to make his very long Act Two monologue seem more than sentimental (meaning, the emotion is unearned) melodrama, thus weakening the play.
Though the cast is generally fine, I feel Ezparza is miscast. He simply does not register as a firebrand or the highly-strung personality the part requires. He's too "soft," physically and personality-wise. Eric Bogosian, who essayed the role in the 1993 reading, was far more effective and credible as a rabble-rousing pain-in-the-ass and the physical similarity between him and Tony Roberts as his brother was far more convincing than in the current production. Also, Joanna Gleason's scene with the examining doctors had little of the impassioned power Stockard Channing brought to the reading. But, no doubt, the actors are still finding their way.
Finally, I sure hope director Esbjornson manages to reduce some of the onstage detritus before one of the actors hurts themselves (I am told, however, this is how Kramer wants it).
Updated On: 4/12/04 at 05:36 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 5:40pm

It is relevant in light of the gay marriage controversy, how?

Corine, I somehow missed the post wherein you stated, "The play is the best play I have seen about Aids and sorry that includes Angels In America.

"What pissed me off was how he started the organization and was thrown out why because of his passion. It made me sick."

First of all, Angels in America is not "about AIDS" and I do think you are being a bit overzealous in the afterglow of your experience. I am glad it made you cry and it hit you on the bus. Please keep in mind that the play is a fictionalized account of Kramer's experience, and he is not the most objective story teller. Believe me, he was not ousted from GMHC because of his "passion." I don't know how you will feel about it that all of the other co-founders of GMHC (except maybe one other, other than Kramer) died of AIDS. Does that make you feel any better, since the way they treated St. Larry made you sick?

PS: There is a GMHC benefit performance of Normal Heart tomorrow night in honor of Larry Kramer. See? There's a danger in you getting all fired up about issues he wrote about 20 years ago. You have a LOT of catching up to do. For instance, homosexual males in the US are not dying in incomprehensible numbers in the face of near-total societal inaction as they were when that play premiered. Just to start you on the road to catching up. And I know you didn't actually see Angels in America til the movie, but the stage show had more updated versions of many of the issues in Normal Heart that you feel so passionate about, now, all of a sudden. Including a hilarious Koch reference that isn't in the movie.

Updated On: 4/12/04 at 05:40 PM

[Corine2]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 9:27pm

Ok Namo.
Tell me is the Koch thing true. I am sorry i voted for the man.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 10:10pm

Yes, the Koch stuff is true, but it is still as seen through the lens of Larry Kramer. I have to wonder how you are just finding this out now? A person as passionate as yourself must have seen all the people wearing "Silence = Death" shirts in the '80s? No? They were the ones shouting "ACT UP, fight back, fight AIDS!" (Jonathan Larson didn't invent that in RENT). ACT UP was very passionate and very theatrical, your two favorite things. How could you have missed this, and voted for him? You announced a long time ago that you had been reading the Voice forever. They covered this stuff ALL THE TIME. And yet you missed it all and voted for Koch. Your favorite writer in the world, the lovely and talented Miss Michael Musto wrote a novel called "Manhattan on the Rocks" and it even included his own personal spin on ACT UP. How did you miss all this?

I am glad you are learning the history now, but the needs in the epidemic in 2004 are not the same as in the early '80s. Find out what the needs are before making generalized statements like "more needs to be done." And then do it.

Updated On: 4/12/04 at 10:10 PM

[Corine2]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 10:22pm

In the 80's I was in upstate NY which is a different world.
Sorry to say. I was in College and thinking about boys not politics. Updated On: 4/12/04 at 10:22 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 10:34pm

You were in college for the entire decade? There were ACT UP chapters all over the world. Did I mention who founded ACT UP? Your new hero, Larry Kramer.

[Corine2]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 10:38pm

Namo-
I have to admit during the 80's i was in high school and College.
My Mother was very involved with all of that. I on the other hand was a teenager looking forward to College and boys and I did not focus on AIDS issues or gay rights.
I was interested in straight boys.
I started following and reading the Voice in the early 90's.
But thanks for the info I will be sure to get Musto's book.
Updated On: 4/12/04 at 10:38 PM

Posted: 4/12/04 at 10:41pm

I saw Normal Heart in its original incarnation at the Public years ago. Has the text been alterered in any way?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 10:45pm

You seem like the kinda gal who would talk to her mother about who she was voting for for mayor, especially if the mother in question was "involved with all that."

Imagine what a different world we would all live in Corine, if you had seen the original production of The Normal Heart in 1985 and had your passions for justice roused then. You could have been Susan Sarandon (a member of ACT UP who took part in civil disobedience and got arrested and showed up for meetings and everything!) and ended this gosh-darned epidemic.

I have to say, for my tastes, I much prefered William Hoffman's "As Is" as a play than "The Normal Heart." I think it covers a lot of the same stuff, but Hoffman chewed his cud better than Kramer did. It opened on Broadway a month after Normal Heart opened downtown.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 10:49pm

how about the mel gibson-esque bloodfest "the destiny of me" which followed, namo?

[Corine2]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 10:51pm

My Mother went to it in 85. In fact today she told me she met Kushner at the opening of Angels In America and Larry Kramer was there. I was in upstate Ny another world.
I wish I saw it back then but to tell you the truth I am not sure if it would have hit me like it has now.
People grow up.
My Mother lost many friends to AIDS. I did also and I hope that i can help now. Updated On: 4/12/04 at 10:51 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 10:58pm

Why won't you capitalize the acronym?

Angels: Millennium opened in the Spring of '93. Perstroika opened in November of that year. They both played in rep until the end of '94. How long were you in high school and college anyway?

[Corine2]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 11:01pm

I graduated in 88 but then lived in Europe for awhile.
I missed those shows. I did see one about Gertz but i was not as aware back then.
(Also I was not as big a theater person back then. I went to maybe 5 shows a year not like now 5 a week sometimes) Updated On: 4/12/04 at 11:01 PM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 11:03pm

So you understand how odd it is to see you getting upset about a play that's 19 years old and to see you fuming over issues that even Larry Kramer has resolved? Not to mention your complete refusal to capitalize AIDS.

[Corine2]

Posted: 4/12/04 at 11:17pm

Sorry Namo,
All i was saying was i was very impressed with the show.
You have made your point.