Simon & Schuster Audio will release the legendary 1993 Broadway benefit reading of THE NORMAL HEART as a digital audiobook for the first time.
The historic live performance, recorded at the height of the AIDS epidemic, featured an all-star cast including Kevin Bacon, Stockard Channing, John Turturro, Harry Hamlin, Eric Bogosian, D.W. Moffett, Tony Roberts, Kevin Geer, David Drake and Jonathan Hadary under the direction of Jerry Zaks. The recording also preserves a rare live stage appearance by Barbra Streisand, whose opening remarks introduced the evening.
The audiobook will be released on December 1, 2026, in observance of World AIDS Day and will be available wherever audiobooks are sold.
Originally staged as two sold-out benefit performances for ACT UP New York’s Treatment + Data Committee, the reading became one of Broadway’s most celebrated fundraising events. Recorded in 1993, just two years before life-saving HIV treatment breakthroughs transformed the AIDS crisis, the performance captures the urgency and emotion of a pivotal moment in American history.
All royalties and performer fees from the audiobook release will benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.
“Simon & Schuster Audio is incredibly proud to make this legendary reading available to listeners of digital audio, especially with a publication on World AIDS Day that honors the play’s enduring legacy and impact,” said Tom Spain, Vice President and Editorial Director of Simon & Schuster Audio. “This recording of The Normal Heart captures an extraordinary moment in Broadway history that audio listeners can now revisit once more. More than thirty years later, its emotional power remains as strong as ever.”
Danny Whitman, Executive Director of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, added: “The Normal Heart chronicles the devastating early years of the AIDS crisis, the very moment that inspired the creation of Broadway Cares. This recording captures a remarkable night when extraordinary artists gave voice to Larry Kramer‘s unflinching call for compassion, courage, and action. Now, more than 30 years later, we’re endlessly grateful that Simon & Schuster Audio is making this landmark performance available to digital audio listeners.”
The announcement arrives during Pride Month ahead of a World AIDS Day release commemorating one of the defining works of American theater and AIDS activism.
About THE NORMAL HEART
THE NORMAL HEART, Larry Kramer‘s landmark drama about the early years of the AIDS epidemic, premiered at The Public Theater in 1985 and quickly became one of the most influential American plays of the twentieth century.
Eight years later, as the AIDS crisis continued to devastate communities across the country, a group of acclaimed stage artists reunited for a benefit reading of the play to raise money and awareness. The performance became Broadway legend, bringing together a remarkable roster of performers and activists in support of the ongoing fight against AIDS.
This newly released audio presentation preserves that historic evening, from Streisand’s opening remarks through the cast’s performances and the audience’s emotional response at the conclusion of the event.
Larry Kramer (1935-2020) was a writer, playwright and activist whose work transformed both American theater and the fight against AIDS.
In 1981, he co-founded Gay Men’s Health Crisis, and in 1987 he helped establish ACT UP. His plays include THE NORMAL HEART, THE DESTINY OF ME, SISSIES’ SCRAPBOOK and JUST SAY NO. His other works include the novel FAGGOTS, The American People volumes one and two, nonfiction books and screenplays.
THE NORMAL HEART was adapted into an Emmy Award-winning HBO film in 2014. Throughout his career, Kramer received numerous honors, including the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, the PEN/Laura Pels International Foundation for Theater Award for a Master American Dramatist and the Tony Awards’ Isabelle Stevenson Award.
