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

Victor Garber, Jason Butler Harner, John Benjamin Hickey, Joe Mantello, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Patrick Wilson will star in a 25th anniversary reading of Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart, on October 18 at the Walter Kerr Theatre. As previously reported, 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.

In May, Grey directed a reading of the play, starring David Eigenberg, Clark Gregg, and Lisa Kudrow.