“Kramer/Fauci” opens Off-Broadway: critics praise the play for the historic Kramer–Fauci clash

The Off-Broadway debut of “Kramer/Fauci”, Daniel Fish’s staging of the 1993 televised clash between the leading AIDS researcher Dr Anthony Fauci and playwright and activist Larry Kramer, officially opened on October 4 at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn, as Playbill reports. Performances began on September 27 and continue until October 24.

In the leading roles are Tony Award winner Will Brill (“Oklahoma!”, “Stereophonic”) as Fauci, and Thomas Jay Ryan (“An Enemy of the People”) as Kramer; the cast is completed by Greig Sargeant and Jennifer Seastone. The creative team includes set designer Jim Findlay, costume designer Terese Wadden, lighting by Scott Zielinski, sound by Tei Blow and movement direction by Beth Gill. The work was commissioned and developed by the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, where it had its world premiere in 2025, and in Brooklyn it is presented in collaboration with OHenry Productions and LD Entertainment.

The first reviews praise the boldness of the staging. Thom Geier of Culture Sauce writes that the play recalls a time when civil dialogue flourished even among people publicly at odds with each other. Sara Holdren of Vulture describes the dialogue between the two men as a “platonic romance, with wise humour”. Christian Lewis of New York Theatre Guide praises Fish’s directorial choices — including a machine that mid-performance releases an ever-growing cloud of soap bubbles, a symbol of the spread of the AIDS crisis — while Arlene Getz of The Recs gives it four stars, noting that the premiere coincides with a time when Fauci is again at the centre of the news in the U.S. Theatermania calls it “high-risk theatre that pays off”, while Theater Pizzazz expresses reservations. BroadwayWorld’s average for the show is 71.4 percent.

The 1993 event, as the theatre press writes, crystallised a turning point in the fight for care, treatment and recognition for those affected by HIV/AIDS. Larry Kramer (1935–2020), playwright of “The Normal Heart”, co-founder of Gay Men’s Health Crisis and founder of ACT UP, remains the central figure of the drama: according to the production notes, Fish dramatises their exchange “as history and as provocation — a moving reminder of how art, activism and public health collide in the most human terms”.