Associated Press - April 21 2004
Michael Kuchwara, AP Drama Critic

Kramer's monumental call to arms over the AIDS crisis has returned home to the Public Theater where it opened in April 1985, starring Brad Davis (who was to die of the disease six years later).

This time around, the production is from the Worth Theater Company (in cooperation with the Public) and headlines Raul Esparza as the militant Ned Weeks who attempts to galvanize an uninformed, uncaring and then terrified gay community into action against a mysterious plague decimating its population.

In the 20 years since its premiere, "The Normal Heart" has moved from reflecting current events to becoming a valuable history lesson that demands not to be forgotten.

Set specifically in the years 1981-1984, the play is operatic in its emotions, big and more than a little messy in laying out the tale of government and medical inaction in the face of dying young men.

The strength of Kramer's devastating drama lies in its passion, its willingness to shout. "The Normal Heart" tells its angry tale in bold, unrelenting strokes. Don't look for subtlety here.

The story centers on Weeks and a small group of friends attempting to form an organization to force people to recognize what's happening. His co-activists are a microcosm of gay men -- the closeted banker who wants to work cautiously through the system; the scared hedonist unwilling to give up sex; and the courtly, queeny Southerner who serves as the voice of commonsense when everyone else is screaming.

Kramer provides Weeks with a personal side, too. There's his heterosexual brother, a wealthy lawyer who has trouble accepting his sibling's gayness. And a too-good-to-be-true companion -- a newspaper reporter who eventually gets AIDS.

Hovering over the play is a woman doctor, a Cassandra-like figure who fears the worst while heroically working to minister to her desperately ill patients.

The Worth production, directed by David Esbjornson, runs nearly three hours and, at times, you feel its length, particularly when the harangues reach decibel level.

Esparza, a dark, intense man, is an extravagant actor not given to nuance. He's perfect for the lightning-rod role of Weeks, portrayed as obnoxious, indefatigable and insecure. Weeks is a man who prefers confrontation to negotiation.

Joanna Gleason, returning to the New York stage after too long an absence, is appropriately stern as the wheelchair-bound doctor who got polio as a teenager. Gleason may be the play's scold but she's never strident.

Of the large supporting cast, Billy Warlock, as the doomed lover, and Richard Bekins, as Weeks' well-meaning brother, deliver the most robust characterizations.

It's odd -- and heartbreaking -- watching "The Normal Heart" for the first time in 19 years. You would expect the play to be more dated, and it's not. AIDS certainly hasn't gone away even if the threat of its automatic death sentence has lessened for those who have access to the right medications.

But times have changed, too.

In fact, there's a startling moment right at the end of the evening, a foreshadowing of things to come in the 21st century. "The Normal Heart" ends with the marriage of Weeks and his desperately ill companion. Who knew Kramer could be so prescient?
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