Top Pick Best Bets: May 7th – May 10th

I first saw Larry Kramer’s play The Normal Heart in Los Angeles at the Las Palmas Theater in 1985. I saw the play again on Broadway in 2011. It has always been one of the most powerful pieces of theater I have ever seen. Which makes this weekend’s reading of The Normal Heart an easy choice for our Top Pick Best Bets: May 7th – May 10th.

The Normal Heart, essentially an autobiographical play, looks at the early days of the AIDS crisis in New York and the efforts of one writer to motivate a city and a country to take the crisis seriously. At risk of alienating his friends and his community, he also tries to rally those in the gay community to fight back and make radical changes in their lifestyle.

Kramer’s play is being given a one-time only reading on Saturday, May 8th at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT by ONE Archives Foundation.

Starring in the reading are Sterling K. Brown (Father Comes Home From the Wars; This Is Us); Laverne Cox (Orange Is the New Black); Jeremy Pope (Choir Boy, Hollywood); Vince Rodriguez III (Here Lies Love; Crazy Ex-Girlfriend); Guillermo Díaz (Scandal); Jake Borelli (Grey’s Anatomy); Ryan O’Connell (Will & Grace); Daniel Newman (Eastsiders; The Walking Dead); Jay Hayden (Station 19; Crazy Ex-Girlfriend) and Danielle Savre (T@gged; Too Close to Home).

Martin Sheen will introduce the live reading of The Normal Heart.

The evening is directed by Paris Barclay (recent recipient of the Directors Guild of America Honorary Lifetime Member Award). There will be a Q&A with Barclay and the cast after the reading.

When I walked out of the Broadway production of The Normal Heart I was astonished (and frankly pleased) with how quiet the audience was leaving the theater. There was none of the chit-chat that inevitably follows a performance. In this case the audience was too moved, too challenged, too stunned, to engage in conversation.

This is emotionally profound material. I strongly recommend The Normal Heart which is why it is Cultural Attaché’s Top Pick Best Bets: May 7th – May 10th.

Tickets begin at $10 for students and $20 for general admission.

Photo Courtesy ONE Archives Foundation