(© David Gordon)
First performed as a solo show at the Perry Street Theatre off-Broadway, The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me is a series of vignettes inspired by Drake’s experiences as a gay man at the height of the AIDS crisis. In this staged reading, Drake will head a company that includes Tony Award winner B.D. Wong (M. Butterfly), Tony Award nominees Robin De Jesus (La Cage aux Folles), André De Shields (The Full Monty), and Rory O’Malley (The Book of Mormon), Claybourne Elder (Bonnie and Clyde), Anthony Rapp (Rent), Wesley Taylor (Smash), Brandon Cordieiro (Pearl), Donald C. Shorter Jr. (La Cage aux Folles), Aaron Tone (BearCity 2), and Chad Ryan, who recently appeared in the show’s Chicago premiere.
The evening will serve as a benefit for BC/EFA, a nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organization, and the Sero Project, which is working to end inappropriate criminal prosecutions of people with HIV. It is produced by the organizations’ executive directors, Tom Viola and Sean Straub, who also produced the show’s off-Broadway premiere in 1990.
