The groundbreaking show The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me will be celebrating its 20th anniversary with a special one-night-only performance on Monday, May 20 at 8:00 pm at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College in New York City. The performance will benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS and the Sero Project, tickets are now available here.
The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me was written by out actor and LGBT advocate David Drake in the early 1990s after joining the HIV/AIDS advocacy group ACT UP, of which Kramer was a founder. Drake began writing autobiographical monologues about the AIDS crisis that would eventually become this one-man show that opened off-Broadway at the Perry Street Theatre and became "one of the longest-running solo shows in New York theatre history."
For this special 20th anniversary performance, the show has been reimagined and Drake will be part of an ensemble crew of 12, including Tony winner BD Wong (Law & Order: SVU), Anthony Rapp (RENT), Tony Award nominee Rory O'Malley (TheBook of Mormon), Wesley Taylor (Smash), two-time Tony Award nominees Robin De Jesùs (In the Heights) and André De Shields (The Full Monty), Claybourne Elder, Brandon Cordeiro, Chad Ryan, Donald C. Shorter, Jr. and Aaron Tone. The Night Larry Kramer Kissed Me will be directed by Tony Award nominee Robert La Fosse.
The Isabelle Stevenson Award is "a non-competitive Tony Award given to an individual from the theater community who has made a substantial contribution on behalf of humanitarian, social service or charitable organizations." Past recipients include Bernadette Peters, Eve Ensler, David Hyde Pierce and Phyllis Newman.
Kramer is best known for his 1985 play The Normal Heart, which is based on his experiences as a co-founder of the Gay Men's Health Crisis during the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. He won the Tony in 2011 for Best Revival of a Play for the show, which is currently being adapted as an HBO film by Ryan Murphy, starring Mark Ruffalo, Matt Bomer, and Jonathan Groff.