Angels in America
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is an award winning play in two parts by American playwright Tony Kushner. It has been made into both a television miniseries of the same name and an opera by Peter Eötvös. The play is written for eight actors, each of whom plays two or more roles.
Contents |
[edit] Production history
The first part, Millennium Approaches, was commissioned and first performed in May 1990 by the Center Theatre Group at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, as a workshop. Kushner developed the play with the Mark Taper Forum, with which he has a long association. It received its world premiere in May 1991 in a production performed by the Eureka Theatre Company of San Francisco, directed by David Esbjornson. It debuted in London in a Royal National Theatre production directed by Declan Donnellan in January 1992, which ran for a year.
The second part, Perestroika, was still being developed as Millennium Approaches was being performed. It was performed several times as stage readings by both the Eureka Theatre (during the world premiere of part one), and the Mark Taper Forum (in May 1992). It received its world premiere in November 1992 in a production by the Mark Taper Forum, directed by Oskar Eustis and Tony Taccone. A year later on 20 November 1993, it received its London debut at the National Theatre, again directed by Declan Donnellan, in repertory with a revival of Millennium Approaches.
The play debuted on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre in 1993, directed by George C. Wolfe, with Millennium Approaches being performed in May and Perestroika joining it in repertory in November. Both Millennium Approaches and Perestroika were awarded the Tony Awards for Best Play back to back in 1993 and 1994 respectively. Both parts also won back to back Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Play.
Performed as a whole, the play runs to a length of around seven hours.
[edit] Plot summary
Set in New York City in the mid-1980s, Act One of Millennium Approaches introduces us to the central characters. Louis Ironson is a neurotic, homosexual Jew who lives with his lover, Prior Walter. When Prior is suddenly stricken with HIV, however (still a poorly understood disease), Louis moves out. Meanwhile, closeted homosexual Mormon and Republican law clerk Joe Pitt is offered a major promotion by his mentor, the McCarthyist Roy Cohn. However, Joe doesn't immediately take the job because he is worried about his Valium-addicted wife Harper.
As the seven-hour play progresses, Prior finds himself being visited by ghosts and angels who proclaim him as a prophet; Joe finds himself struggling to reconcile his religion with his sexuality; Louis struggles with his ideology and the contradictions within it that threaten to destroy his happiness (his love for Prior and his inability to deal with Prior's sickness, his love for America as an institution versus his disgust for what Louis sees as the country's institutionalized system of homophobia, and his love for Joe Pitt and his disgust and revulsion when he discovers that Joe's political mentor and idol is Roy Cohn); Joe's mother Hannah moves to New York to attempt to look after Harper only to befriend Prior after a failed attempt by Prior to confront Hannah's son; and Roy finds himself in the hospital, his only companions being the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg and two nurses, one a former drag queen and Prior's best friend, who must consequently deal with Louis's constant demands for updates on Prior's health.
The play is filled with moments of black comedy and tragedy. It is deliberately performed so that the moments requiring special effects often show their theatricality. Most of the actors play multiple characters (e.g. the actress playing Prior's nurse also appears as the Angel of America). There are heavy biblical references and references to American society, as well as some fantastical scenes including voyages to Antarctica and Heaven, as well as key events happening in San Francisco and at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park.
[edit] HBO miniseries
- For the main article, see Angels in America (miniseries)
In 2003, HBO Films created a miniseries version of the play. Kushner adapted his original text for the screen, and Mike Nichols directed. HBO broadcast the film in various formats: three-hour chunks that correspond to "Millennium Approaches" and "Perestroika," as well as one-hour "chapters" that roughly correspond to an act or two of each of these plays. The first three chapters were initially broadcast on December 7, to international acclaim, with the final three chapters following. "Angels in America" was the most watched made-for-cable movie in 2003 and won both the Golden Globe and Emmy for Best Miniseries.
Kushner made certain edits or changes to his play (especially Part II, "Perestroika") in order for it to work onscreen, but the HBO version is generally a remarkably faithful representation of Kushner's original work. Kushner has been quoted as saying that he knew Mike Nichols was the right person to direct the movie when, at their first meeting, Nichols immediately said that he wanted actors to play multiple roles, as had been done onstage.
The lead cast includes Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson and Mary-Louise Parker.
[edit] Awards and critical reception
[edit] Millennium Approaches
- 1990 Fund for New American Plays/Kennedy Centre Award
- 1991 Bay Area Drama Critics Award for Best Play
- 1991 National Arts Club's Joseph Kesselring Award
- 1992 London Evening Standard Award for Best New Play
- 1992 London Drama Critics Circle Award for Best New Play
- 1993 Drama Desk award for Best Play
- 1993 New York Drama Critics Circle award for Best Play
- 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
- 1993 Tony award for Best Play
[edit] Perestroika
- 1992 Fund for New American Plays/Kennedy Centre Award
- 1992 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Best New Play
- 1994 Tony Award for Best Play
- 1994 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play
The play merited inclusion as the very last item in Harold Bloom's controversial list of what he considered to be the most important works of literature, The Western Canon (1994).
