Larry Kramer (Getty Images)
Barbra Streisand (Getty Images)
The tour of Larry Kramer’s “The Normal Heart,” which won the Tony for Best Revival of a Play in 2011, just opened in Washington, DC, to rave reviews.
Kramer sent a packet of those notices to Barbra Streisand, who optioned the play back in 1986 but never got around to directing a film version. Ryan Murphy, the creator of “Glee,” picked up the option last year, and has lined up a cast that includes Julia Roberts, Mark Ruffalo, Alec Baldwin and Jim Parsons.
Kramer and Streisand have sparred, sometimes publicly, over her reasons for dragging her feet on the movie. But he still admires her — “What gay man wouldn’t be thrilled to sit next to her day after day?” he says — and wanted to keep her abreast of the ongoing success of “The Normal Heart,” his autobiographical work about the AIDS crisis.
And so he was taken aback by her response to the raves.
“Why make me sad that I’m not directing your wonderful play??” she said in an e-mail sent by her assistant.
The fiery founder of ACT UP and an early crusader in the fight against AIDS, Kramer isn’t one to hold his tongue when provoked.
He fired off an e-mail Saturday that’s been making the rounds of showbiz insiders — and eventually wound up in my inbox.
Here we go:
“Dear Barbra . . . My fellow warrior against good and evil, all those many years you could have directed it — what happened to all that time? When your options lapsed, I said you could buy it for a million dollars and do whatever you wanted with it . . . You kept telling me I wanted too much money. I kept telling you this is my only asset to sell and live on for the rest of my life. (AIDS activists don’t make much money.) You couldn’t tell me what you didn’t like about my screenplays. (God knows I wrote enough drafts for you.)
“Ryan has wonderful ideas that jell and enhance my work. You said you couldn’t get financing. He has his financing. He said if he couldn’t get it, he’d finance it himself. (You chose to remodel and redecorate your houses.) This is a man whose driving passion to make this movie is extraordinary.
“When many years ago, [agent] Johnnie Planco took me to lunch to tell me you wanted to buy my play, I jumped up and down in the restaurant and yelled out loud in my happiness . . . Barbra Streisand wanted to film my play, and that meant people all over the world would get my message.
“I guess it wasn’t meant to be. You had other movies and tours to make first. I sat back with increasing sadness as I watched you (often at the last minute) choose something else to do . . . This is not a person with quite the same burning passion to make it as you always claim . . .
“I will always regret not having the experience of working with you on something, but I feel totally blessed that Ryan Murphy has come into my life to take your place.”
I spoke to Kramer about his e-mail.
He said: “Overnight this is going in the press? This will make her mad. But she had every opportunity to make the movie. If she had made it in 1986, it would have been out there a long time ago, doing its job. But I always sensed there was something troubling her about the play that she wouldn’t put into words. I think, maybe, she was uncomfortable directing the sex stuff. We invited her to our opening night [of last year’s revival] in New York, but she never responded.”
Streisand did not return an e-mail seeking comment.
Kramer says Murphy has more than picked up the slack on the movie. “He has a great skill at editing scripts and telling me what he needs to make it work better for him. Barbra was never able to do that.”
Filming should begin within the year, depending on the actors’ schedules. In the meantime, the revival of “The Normal Heart” is headed to London — where it will be produced by Elton John — and San Francisco.
Kramer says Streisand will be invited to the San Francisco opening.
“I’ve always tried not to shut her out,” he says. “I’m sorry she never got around to making the movie. But she can still sing our theme song!”