Angelic

Every now and then, a theatrical production becomes an event.  The most obvious example in present times is Hamilton.  It's even rarer for a non-musical to become an event, but such was the case with the massive, two-part Angels In America, playwright Tony Kushner's "Gay Fantasia on National Themes" which opened on Broadway in 1993.  And now, on its 25th anniversary (the book came out last year), comes the oral history of everything to do with the work, The World Only Spins Forward.

It's compiled, edited and written by Isaac Butler and Dan Kois, who talked to almost 250 people for the project, including many who performed in the play over the years, some who directed and produced it, and Tony Kushner himself. The story is told chronologically, with interludes to discuss the eight major characters in the play. (The play is generally performed by eight actors who each have one main role and double in others.)

The story starts during the Reagan era, where the gay community was not just fighting for its rights, but, with the threat of AIDS, fighting for its life.  Kushner was an up and coming playwright who wanted to deal with certain themes, and was commissioned to write this piece.  It was supposed to have songs and be no longer than two hours.  But he kept writing and by the time he was done, he had two plays, each of which were about three and a half hours. And there were no songs.

The first play would eventually be titled Angels In America: Millenium Approaches.  The first reading was at a small San Francisco theatre in 1989.  From the start people could see it was something special.  Even as the first part was being honed, he started writing the second half, Angels In America: Perestroika, which was becoming unwieldy.  (Kushner would spend years fixing Perestroika.)

The book follows the play(s) from the first performance in San Francisco to a London production, followed by Los Angeles, then Broadway.  After that comes the national tour, various celebrated and controversial productions in America and around the world, the TV movie directed by Mike Nichols for HBO, and the recent major revival in London and Broadway.

Many actors were cast, and sometimes dropped, along the way.  The members of the original New York cast are well known to theatre fans: Kathleen Chalfant as Hannah, David Marshall Grant as Joe, Marcia Gay Harden as Harper, Ron Leibman as Roy Cohn, Joe Mantello as Louis, Ellen McLaughlin as the Angel, Stephen Spinella as Prior and Jeffrey Wright as Belize, all directed by George C. Wolfe.

The HBO version has some big names--Al Pacino as Roy Cohn, Meryl Streep as Hannah and Emma Thompson as the Angel.  The only actor from the original Broadway production is Wright.  The recent Broadway revival featured Nathan Lane as Roy Cohn and Andrew Garfield as Prior.

I was going to discuss the play--which has great wit and beauty, and not a few flaws--at length, but this post is long enough already.  So I'll just note if you want to know anything about the work, and the many people associated with it (and the politics related to it), this is the book for you.  And even if you don't think it's your cup of tea, you might find it an interesting journey.