David Cromer to star in The Normal Heart revival at TimeLine Theatre Company

David Cromer

David Cromer, the Chicago-bred director and actor, is set to play the central role of Ned Weeks this fall in a TimeLine Theatre Company revival of Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, the seminal 1985 stage chronicle of the early days of the AIDS crisis.

Nick Bowling, TimeLine's associate artistic director, will helm the production, planned to open in October at Stage 773. It will mark Cromer's first onstage appearance in Chicago since he portrayed the Stage Manager in his own production of Our Town for the Hypocrites in 2008. That production went on to a long run at Off Broadway's Barrow Street Theater and further iterations in Boston and Los Angeles.

Since Our Town first opened in the basement of the Chopin Theatre, Cromer has picked up three Lucille Lortel Awards and two Obie Awards for directing Off Broadway, as well as helming his first two Broadway productions (2009's Brighton Beach Memoirs and 2011's The House of Blue Leaves). Meanwhile, he's continued to return to Chicago to direct (Writers' Theatre's A Streetcar Named Desire in 2009, Mary-Arrchie's Cherrywood in 2010, last spring's revival of Rent, co-produced by About Face Theatre and American Theater Company and this season's Sweet Bird of Youth at the Goodman).

The Normal Heart had its first Broadway production in 2011, winning the Tony Award for Best Revival. Ryan Murphy (American Horror Story, Glee, The New Normal) is set to direct a screen adaptation, starring Mark Ruffalo, Julia Roberts and Matt Bomer, to debut on HBO in 2014. Exact dates for TimeLine's production, as well as the rest of the company's 2013–14 season, remain to be announced.