Theater News

Victor Garber, Joe Mantello, Jack McBrayer, Patrick Wilson, et al. Set for Normal Heart Benefit Reading

Jack McBrayer
Jack McBrayer

Two-time Emmy Award-nominee Jack McBrayer will join the previously announced Victor Garber, Jason Butler Harner, John Benjamin Hickey, Joe Mantello, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Patrick Wilson in a 25th anniversary reading of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, on October 18 at the Walter Kerr Theatre. Tony Award winner and Oscar winner Joel Grey will direct this benefit for the Actors Fund and Friends In Deed. Additional casting will be announced at a later date.

The play focuses on the terrifying early years of the AIDS epidemic in New York. Grey appeared in the original 1985 Off-Broadway production. Mantello will play the central role of Ned Weeks (based upon Kramer himself), marking the acclaimed director’s first stage appearance as an actor since he starred in Angels in America on Broadway in 1994.

McBrayer, who will be making his Broadway debut, plays Kenneth on NBC’s 30 Rock. His film credits include Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. In addition, he has performed with Second City, ImprovOlympic, and the Upright Citizens Brigade.