My first encounter with Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, the masterwork by Tony Kushner, was the Signature Theater’s revival in 2010. I have vivid memories of a hauntingly fragile yet regally tough Michael Urie as Prior Walter and Bill Heck’s completely realized closeted Mormon Joe Pitt. An off-Broadway production, it was certainly more intimate than I imagine the original productions were. Currently on Broadway is the big scale revival with Nathan Lane (The Producers, The Front Page) as Roy Cohn and Andrew Garfield (Death of a Salesman) as Prior Walter. On second viewing, the play is beyond grand in scope. It is epic, bold, hilarious, aggressively theatrical, wildly overwritten, audacious, heartbreakingly tender and Shakespearean in scope. Angels in America is a great play.
In the beginning (intentional religious symbolism inserted here), Prior Walter learns that he has AIDS and with his live in boyfriend they are facing the illness. The year is 1985. Thousands are dying of this disease and we are smack dab in the middle of Reagan era conservatism. A Mormon couple from Salt Lake now live in New York; she is afraid to go outside, he is a closeted homosexual. The famously evil lawyer Roy Cohn is a major character, dripping with venom. The playing field of this play is immense and tackles politics, religion, love, intolerance, coping, revenge, sanity, health care, acceptance and forgiveness.
The two parts, Millenium Approaches and Perestroika, require seven and one half hours of commitment. I did not opt to see both parts in one day but instead saw them in the same week and I was happy with that choice. I was riveted throughout as was the audience, even through some of kookier, more overwrought sections, notably in Perestroika. Everyone in the cast is very good. I particularly loved Susan Brown. She played a rabbi, a doctor, a mother, a homeless woman, amongst other roles. Many characters inhabit multiple roles that this “fantasia” accommodates brilliantly. James McArdle’s Louis and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett’s Belize were especially fine portrayals.
Whenever I revisit something that has an indelible imprint in memory, there are inevitable comparisons. In this version, I felt that the Mormom wife Harper, played by Denise Gough (People, Places & Things), was too intensely crazed. That choice played beautifully in the more fantastical sections but strained credulity (and focus) during the intimate scenes. The whole production design, directed by Marianne Elliott (War Horse, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time), was not my cup of tea. There were definitely some terrific effects and scene changes. A big “thing” (for lack of a better name) hovers over the stage throughout both parts. When it finally is utilized, it’s a completely ho-hum moment.
Let’s not quibble too much though. Angels in America is a classic piece of theater, standing the test of time. It looks back at when we had oppression, intolerance, polarizing politics and religious fervor. Maybe AIDS has been contained, but isn’t is amazing how far we have not come. The angels and their humans, as imperfect as they may be, still require our utmost attention. There is still more great work to be done.