Friday, July 02, 2004


Larry Kramer on the sudden closing of THE NORMAL HEART:

"I'll tell you one thing: I will never write another play again," Mr. Kramer said yesterday. "I mean, when are we all going to realize that people don't want to go to the theater anymore?"

I don't like this play at all--I find it didactic and dated--but I found his statements right on the money here.

Mr. Kramer said that he did not fault producers for the closing, but did worry about what it meant when a well-reviewed show, with money behind it and Broadway dreams, could not find an audience.

"It speaks very ill of us, meaning all the people today involved in culture and entertainment, that we can produce this stuff and in no way market it to the world," he said.


Kramer is right--it is trouble, and it's getting bigger all the time. The future of American theater is a dark and fractured one, and if we don't get up and face the fact that the world doesn't need theater and find a true way to make ourselves relevant, this is going to be happening more and more often.