A quarter-century after stunning the theater world, one of the greatest theatrical journeys of our time returns to Broadway in an acclaimed new production from the National Theatre. As politically incendiary as any play in the American canon, Angels in America also manages to be, at turns, hilariously irreverent and heartbreakingly humane. It is also astonishingly relevant, speaking every bit as urgently to our anxious times as it did when it first premiered. Tackling Reaganism, McCarthyism, immigration, religion, climate change, and AIDS against the backdrop of New York City in the mid-1980's, no contemporary drama has succeeded so indisputably with so ambitious a scope.
Lane brings yet another kind of volatility to Roy's spiky scenes with Belize (Nathan Stewart-Jarrett), a nurse at St. Vincent's Hospital and Prior's former drag sister. Stewart-Jarrett nails every laugh with his imperious attitude, bouncing Cohn's abuse right back at him. But his swishy attitude doesn't hide his wounded indignation over the disease that's ravaging the gay community, finding a worthy target in defensive Louis in one particularly memorable encounter.
The National Theater production of Tony Kushner's phenomenal 1993 epic work doesn't feel like a historical artifact that won the Pulitzer Prize, two Tony Awards, an Olivier Award, an Emmy, and the National Medal of Arts for its author. In fact, experiencing this revival of the 25-year-old play feels more like picking up a scorching hot ember from a fire that won't burn out. The scribe's thoughts about religion, politics, sex, morality, mortality, civic corruption and environmental calamity - as viewed through the prism of the 1980s AIDS crisis - seem every bit as prescient as they did when all our friends were dying.
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