Amazon.com Review
Tony Kushner's Angels in America is that rare entity: a work for the stage that is profoundly moving yet very funny, highly theatrical yet steeped in traditional literary values, and most of all deeply American in its attitudes and political concerns. In two full-length plays--Millennium Approaches and Perestroika--Kushner tells the story of a handful of people trying to make sense of the world. Prior is a man living with AIDS whose lover Louis has left him and become involved with Joe, an ex-Mormon and political conservative whose wife, Harper, is slowly having a nervous breakdown. These stories are contrasted with that of Roy Cohn (a fictional re-creation of the infamous American conservative ideologue who died of AIDS in 1986) and his attempts to remain in the closet while trying to find some sort of personal salvation in his beliefs. But such a summary does not do justice to Kushner's grand plan, which mixes magical realism with political speeches, high comedy with painful tragedy, and stitches it all together with a daring sense of irony and a moral vision that demands respect and attention. On one level, the play is an indictment of the government led by Ronald Reagan, from the blatant disregard for the AIDS crisis to the flagrant political corruption. But beneath the acute sense of political and moral outrage lies a meditation on what it means to live and die--of AIDS, or anything else--in a society that cares less and less about human life and basic decency. The play's breadth and internal drive is matched by its beautiful writing and unbridled compassion. Winner of two Tony Awards and the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for drama, Angels in America is one of the most outstanding plays of the American theater. --Michael Bronski
Review
“Angels in America has proved to be a watershed drama, the most lyrical and ambitious augury of an era since Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie.” –John Lahr, New Yorker
"A vast, miraculous play... provocative, witty and deeply upsetting... a searching and radical rethinking of American political drama." -Frank Rich, New York Times
"Daring and dazzling! The most ambitious America play of our time: an epic that ranges from earth to heaven; focuses on politics, sex, and religion; transports us to Washington, the Kremlin, the South Bronx, Salt Lake City and Antarctica; deals with Jews, Mormons, WASPs, blacks; switches between realism and fantasy, from the tragedy of AIDS to the camp comedy of drag queens to the death or at least absconding of God…Angels in America is the broadest, deepest, most searching American play of our time." - Jack Kroll, Newsweek
“Few plays have captured the spirit of an age more powerfully than Angels in America…and the passage of time has not clipped Angels’ wings.” –Paul Taylor, Independent (London)
“Something rare, dangerous, and harrowing…a roman candle hurled into a drawing room.” –Nicholas de Jongh, London Evening Standard
“Angels breaks all the rules to achieve the astonishing integrity of its vision…It is a play that has remained utterly of-the-moment.” –Jeremy Gerard, Bloomberg
“The most influential American play of the last two decades.” –Patrick Healy, New York Times
“That Angels came so close to the burning heart of the Zeitgeist left Kushner fearing he would never get there again. But in fact he has been there so often that he seems to have passed right through it…Angels, so much a cry in the dark about AIDS when it was written, seems now to be as much about the Earth’s potentially fatal illness as gay men’s.” –Jesse Green, New York
“The greatest American play of the waning years of the twentieth century.” –Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
Angels in America has proved to be a watershed drama, the most lyrical and ambitious augury of an era since Tennessee William’s The Glass Menagerie.” John Lahr, New Yorker
"A vast, miraculous play... provocative, witty and deeply upsetting... a searching and radical rethinking of American political drama." -Frank Rich, New York Times
"Daring and dazzling! The most ambitious America play of our time: an epic that ranges from earth to heaven; focuses on politics, sex, and religion; transports us to Washington, the Kremlin, the South Bronx, Salt Lake City and Antarctica; deals with Jews, Mormons, WASPs, blacks; switches between realism and fantasy, from the tragedy of AIDS to the camp comedy of drag queens to the death or at least absconding of God
Angels in America is the broadest, deepest, most searching American play of our time." - Jack Kroll, Newsweek
Few plays have captured the spirit of an age more powerfully than Angels in America
and the passage of time has not clipped Angels’ wings.” Paul Taylor, Independent (London)
Something rare, dangerous, and harrowing
a roman candle hurled into a drawing room.” Nicholas de Jongh, London Evening Standard
Angels breaks all the rules to achieve the astonishing integrity of its vision
It is a play that has remained utterly of-the-moment.” Jeremy Gerard, Bloomberg
The most influential American play of the last two decades.” Patrick Healy, New York Times
That Angels came so close to the burning heart of the Zeitgeist left Kushner fearing he would never get there again. But in fact he has been there so often that he seems to have passed right through it
Angels, so much a cry in the dark about AIDS when it was written, seems now to be as much about the Earth’s potentially fatal illness as gay men’s.” Jesse Green, New York
The greatest American play of the waning years of the twentieth century.” Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune
About the Author
Tony Kushner's plays include A Bright Room Called Day and Slavs!; as well as adaptations of Corneille's The Illusion, Ansky's The Dybbuk, Brecht's The Good Person of Szecguan and Goethe's Stella. Current projects include: Henry Box Brown or The Mirror of Slavery; and two musical plays: St. Cecilia or The Power of Music and Caroline or Change. His collaboration with Maurice Sendak on an American version of the children's opera, Brundibar, appeared in book form Fall 2003. Kushner grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and he lives in New York.
