Larry Kramer News

Tonight is the night! The 2011 Tony Awards are now underway at the Beacon Theatre and are being broadcast live on CBS. BroadwayWorld is your one-stop shop for all things Tonys tonight including blogs, photos, videos, winners stories and more! Miss the speeches of your favorite winners? Want to relive the moment? Rounding out our coverage for the evening, check back all night for trasciptions of the winners speeches throughout the night, updating live!

Directing the Broadway premieres of entities as diverse as Edward Albee's blisteringly brilliant modern tragedy THE GOAT, OR WHO IS SYLVIA? - as well as Albee's THE PLAY ABOUT THE BABY Off-Broadway; in addition to other notable Off-Broadway credits including the recent revival of Larry Kramer's Pulitzer-prize-winning THE NORMAL HEART starring Raul Esparza - to Arthur Miller's THE RIDE DOWN MT. MORGAN starring Patrick Stewart, Farah Fawcett's troubled star vehicle BOBBI BOLAND, up to this season's hit revival of Alfred Uhry'ss DRIVING MISS DAISY starring James Earl Jones and Vanessa Redgrave and the brand new Shakespeare-In-The-Park production of MEASURE FOR MEASURE - beginning previews at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park this week - director David Esbjornson's work is always vivid, human and compelling. Taking on one of Shakespeare's most problematic plays is merely one of the many challenges for Esbjornson and that has been even further compounded by the intense and sporadic rehearsal nature of playing two new productions simultaneously in repertory, as the Public is doing this season with MEASURE FOR MEASURE along with Daniel Sullivan's ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL - which was featured in this very column last week. Talking about all aspects of this revolutionary new take on MEASURE FOR MEASURE as well as his past work, Esbjornson and I shine a light on the sensitive and moving productions that he has provided the theatre community with in his tenure, foremost of all being this new MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

AIDS activist Larry Kramer is the featured subject of the next installment of Iconography, an exclusive series that honors the life, career, and impact of iconic personalities on SiriusXM's 24/7 LGBT channel OutQ (channel 108). Iconography: Larry Kramer offers an intimate look at the life and work of playwright, author, public health advocate, and LGBT rights activist.

Today we are featuring one of Broadway's most accomplished and charismatic leading men who has solidified himself as one of the premiere theatrical interpreters of our age in his performances on Broadway in both musicals and plays, off-Broadway and even in Shakespeare-In-The-Park productions: Raul Esparza. Mr. Esparza can certainly do it all and even though he has yet to take home a Tony Award of his own, he has enacted two of the most memorable recent performances on the yearly telecast: first, in his Broadway debut role as Riff Raff in the 2000 revival of THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW and, most recently, performing a full-bodied, soul-bared "Being Alive" from COMPANY. So, let's take a look back at those two unforgettable performances and perhaps surprise or two, as well!

This week, Sardi's unveiled caricatures of THE NORMAL HEART Tony Award Nominees Ellen Barkin, John Benjamin Hickey & Joe Mantello with George C. Wolfe and BroadwayWorld.com was there!

Last week, the acclaimed revival of The Normal Heart offered a special '30 for $30' night to help introduce Larry Kramer's powerful and important play to a new generation. Based on the success of the evening and the young people that filled the show's audience on May 26th, producer Daryl Roth announced today that the show will extend its '30 Under $30' discount for all Thursday performances in June (June 2, June 9, June 16, June 23, June 30).

The story of a city in denial, The Normal Heart unfolds like a real-life political thriller -- as a tight-knit group of friends refuses to let doctors, politicians and the press bury the truth of an unspoken epidemic behind a wall of silence. First produced by Joseph Papp at New York's Public Theater, the play was a critical sensation and a seminal moment in theater history. So ahead of its time was this play that many of the core issues it addresses - including gay marriage, the healthcare system and, of course, AIDS - are just as relevant today as they were when it first premiered.

This evening, Wednesday, May 25, 2011, Christine Vachon (Producer, Far From Heaven, Boys Don't Cry, Hedwig and the Angry Inch), fashion guru and author Carson Kressley of Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, talk show host Phil Donahue, food critic and Chopped host Ted Allen, and openly-gay and HIV-positive New York State Senator Tom Duane will host a cocktail reception and preview screening from 6:30-8:30 PM at New York City's LGBT Community Center, 208 West 13th Street (between 7th & Greenwich Avenues) in Manhattan to raise funds for ACT UP!, a documentary film currently in production with the expectation of premiering at Sundance 2012, followed by wide theatrical release and television broadcast.

The 2011 Drama Desk Awards are set to feature a star-stuuded A star-studded list of presenters has been assembled to participate in the 56th Annual Drama Desk Awards Ceremony on Monday, May 23, 2011, at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan Center, it was announced here today by Robert R. Blume, Executive Producer of the Drama Desk Awards.

Star on the NORMAL HEART, Ellen Barkin recently stopped by 'Late Night with JImmy Fallon' to chat about the Broadway revival. Click below to check out the interview!

The 2011 Drama Desk Awards are set to feature a star-stuuded line-up of presenters including Ellen Barkin, who joins previously announced Katie Holmes, Daniel Radcliffe, Tyne Daly, Liev Schreiber, Montego Glover, Colin Quinn, Jennifer Damiano and Reeve Carney, Jonathan Groff, Cheyenne Jackson, Larry Kramer, Marsha Mason, Annabella Sciorra, Christian Siriano, Holland Taylor and Tom Wopat.

Yesterday evening, May 16, The New York Drama Critics' Circle presented their 2011 Drama Critics Circle Awards at Angus McIndoe Restaurant in Times Square. The 2011 recipients are Best Play: Good People, by David Lindsay-Abaire; Best Foreign Play: Jerusalem, by Jez Butterworth; Best Musical: The Book of Mormon, by Trey Parker, Matt Stone and Robert Lopez; Special Citations: The Broadway revival of The Normal Heart; Mark Rylance for La Bête and Jerusalem; and the direction, design and puppetry of War Horse.

Alchemy Theatre Company of Manhattan (Robert Saxner, Producing Artistic Director), Fran Kirmser, and Andrew Frank are pleased to present, an industry reading of, FLIGHT a new play by Michel Wallerstein starring Douglas Sills, Maria Tucci, Jennifer Dundas, and Zuleyma Guevara It is directed by James B. Nicola, with casting by Laura Stanczyk.

As confirmed as of today, the 2011 Drama Desk Awards will feature a star-stuuded line-up of presenters including: Katie Holmes, Daniel Radcliffe, Tyne Daly, Liev Schreiber, Montego Glover, Colin Quinn, Jennifer Damiano and Reeve Carney (Spiderman), Jonathan Groff, Cheyenne Jackson, Larry Kramer, Marsha Mason, Annabella Sciorra, Christian Siriano, Holland Taylor and Tom Wopat.

With a 2011 Tony nomination for Best Featured Actor In A Play for his magnetic turn in the critically-hailed revival of Larry Kramer's THE NORMAL HEART on Broadway and a leading role on Showtime's THE BIG C co-starring real-life close friend Laura Linney, as well as a busy film career that boats memorable turns in THE REF, ME & MY SHADOWS: LIFE WITH JUDY GARLAND, FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS, the recent remake of THE TAKING OF PELHAM 123 and TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN, John Benjamin Hickey is a very busy man. Nevertheless, he was kind enough to recently take some time out of his beyond busy schedule to talk all about his stage and screen career - including sharing some revealing anecdotes about starring in THE CRUCIBLE with Liam Neeson and Linney, as well as working with the esteemed playwright Arthur Miller himself, in addition to his work in Terrance McNally's LOVE, VALOUR, COMPASSION, Sam Mendes and Rob Marshall's revival of CABARET, and, of course, all about the George C. Wolfe/Joel Grey production of THE NORMAL HEART starring director/actor Joe Mantello that he is participating in now. Plus, we have his thoughts on his recent GOOD WIFE appearance, feelings on the place of political theatre in society today, what roles he would like to take on in the future, his affection for the work of Edward Albee - and much, much more.

Alchemy Theatre Company of Manhattan (Robert Saxner, Producing Artistic Director), Fran Kirmser, and Andrew Frank are pleased to present, an industry reading of, FLIGHT a new play by Michel Wallerstein starring Douglas Sills.

Critically acclaimed transgender actress/singer, Alexandra Billings, makes her Minneapolis debut at Loring Theater in association with longtime producer and friend Mary Beidler Gearen/MBG Productions Inc.

Critically acclaimed transgender actress/singer, Alexandra Billings, makes her Minneapolis debut at Loring Theater in association with longtime producer and friend Mary Beidler Gearen/MBG Productions Inc.

Producer Daryl Roth announced today that the premiere Broadway presentation of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart will host a series of post-show talkbacks, which began Tuesday, May 3.