As Is is a play by William M. Hoffman

William M. Hoffman

William Moses Hoffman is an American playwright, editor and educator.- Biography :Born in New York City, New York, United States, Hoffman's earliest works either were mounted in small, experimental off-off-Broadway theaters in New York City or remain unproduced.It was not until 1985 that he...

.The Circle Repertory Company

Circle Repertory Company

The Circle Repertory Company, originally named the Circle Theater Company, was a theatre company in New York City that ran from 1969 to 1996. It was founded on July 14, 1969, in Manhattan, in a second floor loft at Broadway and 83rd Street by director Marshall W...

 and The Glines

The Glines

Founded in 1976 by John Glines, Barry Laine and Jerry Tobin, The Glines is an American not-for-profit organization based in New York City, New York, devoted to creating and presenting gay art to develop positive self-images and dispel negative stereotyping....

 co-production, directed by Marshall W. Mason

Marshall W. Mason

Marshall W. Mason is an American theater director, the founder and for eighteen years, artistic director of the Circle Repertory Company in New York City....

, opened on March 10, 1985 at the Circle Theatre, where it ran for 49 performances. The Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...

 production, produced by John Glines

John Glines

John Glines is an American playwright and producer.-Playwright and producer:Glines graduated from Yale in 1955 with a BA in drama. As a writer in children’s television, he worked for seven years on Captain Kangaroo and for four years on Sesame Street...

, Lawrence Lane

Lawrence Lane

Lawrence Lane is a theatrical producer who is best known as one of the original producers of Harvey Fierstein's "Torch Song Trilogy". Lane, who served as Managing Director for The Glines, produced the play in 1978 with his lover John Glines, who served as the company's Artistic Director. The show...

, Lucille Lortel

Lucille Lortel

Lucille Lortel was an American actress and theater producer who is remembered as the namesake of an off-Broadway playhouse and theatrical award....

, and the Shubert Organization

The Shubert Organization

The Shubert Organization is a theatrical producing organization and a major owner of legitimate theatres based in Manhattan, New York City. It was founded by the Shubert brothers, Sam S. Shubert, Lee Shubert, and Jacob J. Shubert of Syracuse, New York in the late 19th century in upstate New York,...

, opened on May 1 at the Lyceum Theatre, where it ran for 285 performances following six previews. The cast included Jonathan Hadary

Jonathan Hadary

Jonathan Hadary is an American actor.Born in Chicago, Illinois and raised in Bethesda, Maryland, Hadary arrived at Tufts University already an accomplished actor. He was promptly cast by every director at Tufts, both student and faculty. During his sophomore year, he became an understudy for the...

, Jonathan Hogan

Jonathan Hogan

Jonathan Hogan is an American actor.Born in Chicago, Illinois, Hogan made his New York City stage debut in the off-Broadway Circle Repertory Company's highly successful production of Hot L Baltimore...

, Lou Liberatore

Lou Liberatore

Lou Liberatore is an American actor.A graduate of Fordham University, Liberatore made his New York City stage debut in the 1982 Circle Repertory Company production of Richard II. As a permanent member of the company he appeared in The Great Grandson of Jebediah Kohler, Black Angel, and As Is and...

, Ken Kliban, and Claris Erickson.

Plot synopsis

As Is focuses on the effect AIDS

AIDS

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome is a disease of the human immune system caused by the human immunodeficiency virus...

, then a fairly new pandemic

Pandemic

A pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that is spreading through human populations across a large region; for instance multiple continents, or even worldwide. A widespread endemic disease that is stable in terms of how many people are getting sick from it is not a pandemic...

, has on a group of friends living in New York City. It was one of the first plays, and subsequent television films, depicting how the pandemic was affecting LGBT

LGBT

LGBT is an initialism that collectively refers to "lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender" people. In use since the 1990s, the term "LGBT" is an adaptation of the initialism "LGB", which itself started replacing the phrase "gay community" beginning in the mid-to-late 1980s, which many within the...

 Americans, being released shortly before Larry Kramer

Larry Kramer

Larry Kramer is an American playwright, author, public health advocate, and LGBT rights activist. He began his career rewriting scripts while working for Columbia Pictures, which led him to London where he worked with United Artists. There he wrote the screenplay for Women in Love in 1969, earning...

's play The Normal Heart

The Normal Heart

The Normal Heart is a largely autobiographical play by Larry Kramer. It focuses on the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City between 1981 and 1984, as seen through the eyes of writer/activist Ned Weeks, the gay Jewish-American founder of a prominent HIV advocacy group...

was first performed on April 21, 1985.

Adaptation

In 1986, Hoffman adapted the play for a television production directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg

Michael Lindsay-Hogg

Sir Michael Edward Lindsay-Hogg, 5th Baronet is a British television and stage director and an occasional writer and actor.-Background and early work:...

 starring Hadary, Robert Carradine

Robert Carradine

Robert Reed Carradine is an American actor. The youngest of the Carradine family of actors, he made his first appearances on television western series such as Bonanza and his older brother David's Kung Fu. Carradine's first film role was in the 1972 film The Cowboys opposite Roscoe Lee Browne and...

, and Colleen Dewhurst

Colleen Dewhurst

Colleen Rose Dewhurst was a Canadian-American actress known for a while as "the Queen of Off-Broadway." In her autobiography, Dewhurst wrote: "I had moved so quickly from one Off-Broadway production to the next that I was known, at one point, as the 'Queen of Off-Broadway'...

. Both Hadary and Carradine were nominated for CableACE Awards.

Awards and nominations

Awards

• 1985 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Play

Nominations

• 1985 Tony Award for Best Play
  Tony Award for Best Play
  The Tony Award for Best Play is an annual award celebrating achievements in live American theatre, including musical theatre, honoring productions on Broadway in New York. It currently takes place in mid-June each year.There was no award in the Tony's first year...