Andrew Scott to Lead Fire Island Benefit Reading of The Normal Heart

Fire Island Pines Arts Project (FIPAP) will mark the 40th anniversaries of both the organization and Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart with a one-night-only benefit reading on Saturday, August 22, at Whyte Hall in Fire Island Pines.

Leigh Silverman (Suffs) will direct the event, led by Andrew Scott, Andrew Rannells, Francis Jue, Katy Sullivan, Ben Levi Ross, Kyle Beltran, Jordan Roth, Jerry Mitchell, James Dale, Eric Sawyer, and Todd Sears.

Produced by FIPAP, the benefit will raise funds for Broadway for Arts Education (BAE), a nonprofit that partners with Broadway artists to expand access to arts education in underserved communities. In conjunction with the reading, BAE will present an educational program for high school students using intergenerational storytelling to explore the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and preserve the experiences of those who lived through it.

The Normal Heart premiered off-Broadway in 1984 and ran on Broadway in 2011, a production that won the Tony for Best Revival of a Play. It looks at the early days of the AIDS crisis and follows a group of activists, led by Ned Weeks (a Kramer stand-in) as they form the Gay Men’s Health Crisis.