Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes: Part One: Millennium Approaches Part Two: Perestroika [Paperback]

Tony Kushner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2003

HBO Films will present Angels in America, directed by Mike Nichols from Tony Kushner’s own adaptation of his Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes. The remarkable cast features Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Mary Louise Parker, Jeffrey Wright, Justin Kirk, Ben Shenkman, Patrick Wilson, James Cromwell, Michael Gambon and Simon Callow.

Angels in America is one of the most remarkable and celebrated plays of our time. Over 350,000 copies have been sold in paperback since their original publication in 1993.

Praise for the play:

"Angels in America is the broadest, deepest, most searching American play of our time."—Jack Kroll, Newsweek

"A vast, miraculous play . . . provocative, witty and deeply upsetting . . . a searching and radical rethinking of Ameri-can political drama."—Frank Rich, The New York Times

"Something rare, dangerous and harrowing…a roman candle hurled into a drawing room . . . "—Nicholas de Jongh, London Evening Standard

"Playful and profound, extravagantly theatrical and deeply spiritual, witty, and compassionate, furious and incredibly smart . . . It’s impossible to imagine anyone captivated by the beginning not wanting—needing—to go back for the end."—Linda Winer, Newsday

"An enormously impressive work of the imagination and intellect, a towering example of what theatre stretched to its full potential can achieve."—Clifford A. Ridley, Philadelphia Inquirer

"Perestroika is a masterpiece."—John Lahr, New Yorker

Editorial Reviews

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Theatre Communications Group; 1 edition (November 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1559362316
• ISBN-13: 978-1559362313
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (56 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,693 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #3 in Books > Gay & Lesbian > Literature & Fiction > Drama
  • #4 in Books > Medical Books > Medicine > Internal Medicine > Pathology > Diseases > AIDS & HIV
  • #31 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Social Sciences > Specific Demographics > Gay & Lesbian

More 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.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 30 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A triumphant landmark of the U.S. theater August 26, 2001

By Michael J. Mazza HALL OF FAME

Format:Paperback

Tony Kushner's two part epic play "Angels in America" is
truly a landmark of United States literature. The two parts of the
play (subtitled "Millennium Approaches" and
"Perestroika") together represent a passionate and
intelligent exploration of American life during the era of President
Ronald Reagan. Kushner peoples his play with individuals who are for
the most part "marginal" in some way in U.S. culture. His
characters include Mormons, gay men, men with AIDS, Jews, a drug
addict, and an African-American drag queen. These various perspectives
and voices allow Kushner to create some fascinating dialogues about
the "American dream"--and about the nightmares that can go
along with it.

Kushner's cast of characters is excellently drawn, but
perhaps his most astounding creation is influential lawyer Roy Cohn, a
fictionalized version of a real historical figure. A gay Jew who is
himself viciously homophobic, Kushner's Cohn is grotesque, hilarious,
frightening, and seductive all at once. This character allows Kushner
to make fascinating statements about power, politics, and sexual
identity.

Also brilliant is Kushner's use of Mormonism and its
theology as an integral component of the play. Kushner is the first
literary artist I know of who has used Mormon themes and motifs in
such a consistently compelling and intelligent way. Kushner is, in my
opinion, neither a proselytizer for nor a basher of Mormonism, but his
presentation of troubled Mormon characters and his apparent satirizing
of some aspects of Mormon theology both strike me as potentially
controversial. Because Mormonism is a religion founded in the U.S.,
this aspect of Kushner's play accentuates the essential
"American-ness" of the piece.

Kushner achieves a stunning
blend of politically charged realism and fantastic, even playful
mysticism in "Angels." His writing is sharp and cutting at
times, and elsewhere tender and haunting. And the play is often quite
funny. Although the action of the play focuses on the Reagan era,
"Angels" often takes in a much larger sweep of U.S., and
even world, history.

"Angels in America" is a fascinating
meditation on power and its abuse, on disease and healing, on honesty
to oneself and to others, and on pluralism and bigotry. A masterpiece
of 20th century literature, this is a play to be seen. But whether or
not you have seen it, it is also a work to be read and pondered.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Stellar score January 28, 2004

By Birdman

Format:Paperback

With ANGELS, Tony Kushner has accomplished what only a rare few Western writers have managed to do. Integrating biblical knowledge, classical history, myth, poetry and a vast understanding of the human heart in all of its best and worst guises, these plays illuminate with the blinding fire of the angel at its core, the great hypocrisies which lay just beneath the surface of our nation. Like Howard Zinn, and to some extent Studs Terkel, Kushner recognizes that we are not one nation under God. Instead, we seem to be a huge, selfish and confused hoarde attepting to move forward in time with primary moral references to the oldest, and in some ways, least applicable documents and sources of wisdom. Whether one believes that God is "dead" or not, I cannot imagine another work of literature which might promote a more useful theological discussion between so-called liberals and conservatives. Add to this the fact that the stories and characterization are gripping, the heroes are truly admirable and the villains reprehensible. Humans change in profound and permanent ways, and amid the pain of our time, there is -- after a reading of these remarkable plays -- still hope. For once in many years, the Pulitzer Prize moved in the right direction. Whether read or viewed on stage or in its most recent iteration as a superb HBO movie, ANGELS is one of the most rewarding experiences of a lifetime.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Angels in America opens new doors for a new generation February 19, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

I've never read a book that has left me with the shocking impact that 'Angels in America' has left me. At first I felt that the book was very confusing with all of the characters, but once the storyline became clear to me, I was able to get into the heart of the matter. Tony Kushner really touches on a subject that affects today's society in an unforgettable way that no other writer has been able to do. His identification with AIDS is profound, although the book takes place at a time when AIDS was still unknown and misunderstood. Today's society may be more accepting of people's different lifestyles, but there is still a division in our beliefs and opinions. Kushner has helped me to believe that just because you are different doesn't mean you are not a human being. It's what's inside of the person that matters the most. It's what the person has to give to others that makes them human beings. Kushner's characters all have a unique personality about them; they are all different. But in the end we find that every person in the book have something in common, and that is what makes them become one in the end. It's what makes them all connected in the same way. Prior and Louis are two of the best characters in the book. Through them, all of the other characters become connected somehow by the end of the book. They all meet under strange circumstances, but it is those odd circumstances that make the book so spectacular. Roy is the most profound character that I have ever come across. He has an incurable disease that is taking his life, yet he remains in denial until the end leaving me with the question of whether the disease ever destroyed him or if he destroyed the disease. I think the two chracters, Joe and Harper, stand for what every person goes through some time in their lives. Our world is full of confusion and decisions, the hardest thing to do is keep yourself straight, so to speak, but Joe and Harper become the victims of an uncompassionate society; a society that abandons them. The issues revealed in this book are issues that most people want to hide from. No one wants to talk about politics, homosexuality, AIDS, or religion, and to combine all these issues in one book was a very bold stand Kushner took. Instead of denying all these issues or brushing them off, 'Angels in America' talks about them just like two guys talking about baseball. These issues were brought to the surface where they remained evident throughout the book wanting me to read more in the end. Although I felt the book was surprisingly full of language and explicit details, details I sometimes think should have been left to my imagination, I can't help but appreciate the truth that it provided for me by being so real and surprising. We live in a sheltered world where we want to shelter our children from all that can harm them, but in the end we don't realize that it is the sheltering that does the most damage to our youth. This book has taught me to never deny or abandon the beliefs I have grown up with or the things my parents have taught me, but at the same time, I should never abandon the person I have become.