[In the following, Beaufort judges The Normal Heart propagandistic and censures Kramer's "sweeping (and sometimes questionable) generalizations. "]

Like As Is, an Off Broadway production bound for Broadway, Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart deals with the effects of a malady known as AIDS (the medical acronym for "acquired immune deficiency syndrome"). Written in anguish and anger, the new drama at the Public/Luesther Hall features documentation, strident polemic, propaganda, and a doomed homosexual romance.

Mr. Kramer particularizes the devastating effects of the AIDS epidemic in the relationship between his two central characters, a novelist (Brad Davis) and a New York Times reporter (D. W. Moffett).

The author is intent on indicting those in the public and private sectors whom he charges with having failed to respond promptly and adequately to the AIDS threat. While censuring governmental, medical, and press establishments, Mr. Kramer reserves his sharpest scorn and condemnation for New York Mayor Edward I. Koch.

In such a one-sided view, there is no opportunity for rebuttal. The Normal Heart further weakens its appeal by making its gay-activist protagonist (Mr. Davis) such an abrasive fanatic that he is finally expelled from the very support committee he co-founded.

The Normal Heart presents a harrowing case history along with its sweeping (and sometimes questionable) generalizations. Mr. Kramer attempts unsuccessfully to combine a plea for responsible official awareness and treatment of a tragic health disaster with a propaganda pitch for society's unreserved acceptance of homosexual life styles.

The play is acted with conviction under Michael LindsayHogg's direction.