The play is a complex, often metaphorical, and at times symbolic examination of AIDS and homosexuality in the United States in the 1980s. Certain major and minor characters are supernatural beings (angels) or deceased persons (ghosts). The play contains multiple roles for several actors. Initially and primarily focusing on one gay and one straight couple in Manhattan, the plot has several additional storylines, some of which intersect occasionally.

In 1994, playwright and professor of theater studies John M. Clum called the play “a turning point in the history of gay drama, the history of American drama, and of American literary culture.” It is widely described as one of the greatest plays of the 20th century and of all time.

Millennium Approaches

Set in New York City, the play takes place between October 1985 and February 1986. The play begins at a funeral, where an elderly rabbi eulogizes the deceased woman’s entire generation of immigrants who risked their lives to build a community in the United States. Soon after, the deceased’s grandson, Louis Ironson, learns that his lover Prior Walter, the last member of an old stock American family, has AIDS. As Prior’s illness progresses, Louis becomes unable to cope, and he abandons Prior during a health episode that lands him in the hospital. Prior is given emotional support by their friend Belize, a hospital nurse and ex-drag queen, who separately also deals with Louis’s self-castigating guilt and myriad excuses for leaving Prior.

The Pitts

Joe Pitt, a Mormon Republican clerk in the same judge’s office where Louis holds a word-processing job, is offered a position in Washington, D.C. by his mentor, the McCarthyist lawyer and power broker Roy Cohn. Joe hesitates to accept due to his agoraphobic, Valium-addicted wife Harper, who refuses to relocate. Feeling adrift and undesired by Joe, Harper retreats into drug-fueled escapist fantasies, including a dream where she crosses paths with Prior even though the two of them have never met in the real world. She confronts Joe about his deeply-closeted homosexuality, which he views as a sin. Torn by pressure from Roy and a burgeoning infatuation with Louis, Joe drunkenly comes out to his conservative mother Hannah, who reacts by changing the subject and hanging up the phone. Concerned for her son, she sells her house in Salt Lake City and travels to New York. After Joe confesses his homosexuality to a drug-addled Harper and leaves her, she flees their apartment and wanders the streets of Brooklyn, believing she is in Antarctica. Joe sets out to look for her, but follows Louis to Central Park, where they tentatively begin an affair.

Roy Cohn

Meanwhile, Roy Cohn discovers that he has advanced AIDS and is dying. Defiantly refusing to publicly admit he is gay or has AIDS, Roy instead declares he has liver cancer. Facing disbarment for misappropriating money from a client, Roy is determined to beat the case so he can die a lawyer in good standing, and he attempts to position Joe in the Department of Justice to ensure the case is quashed. When Harper disappears and Joe refuses his offer, Roy flies into a rage and collapses in pain. As he awaits transport to the hospital, he is haunted by the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, whom he prosecuted in her trial for espionage, and who was executed after Roy illegally lobbied the judge for the death penalty.

The Prophet

Prior begins to experience intense dreams and visions as his health worsens. He hears the voice of an angel telling him to prepare for her arrival, a flaming book erupts from the floor during a medical check-up, and he receives visits from the ghosts of two ancestral Prior Walters, informing him that he is a divine prophet. Prior does not know if these visitations are hallucinations caused by an emotional breakdown or if they are real. At the end of Part One, a glorious winged Angel crashes through Prior’s bedroom ceiling, addresses him as “Prophet”, and proclaims that “the Great Work” has begun.

Perestroika

The play begins with a speech given by the world’s oldest living Bolshevik, Aleksii Antedilluvianovich Prelapsarianov, addressing a crowd in Moscow in December 1985. He condemns the reforms proposed by Mikhail Gorbachev, decrying the notion of progress without political theory, and declaring that the only way forward is to not move.

The Angel’s Message

At the funeral of a friend, a shaken Prior relates his encounter with the Angel to Belize. After revealing the presence of a mystical book underneath the tile in Prior’s kitchen, the Angel reveals to him that Heaven is a beautiful city that resembles San Francisco, and God, described as a great flaming Aleph, created the universe through copulation with His angels, who are all-knowing but unable to create or change on their own. God, bored with the angels, made mankind with the power to change and create. The progress of mankind on Earth caused Heaven to suffer earthquake-like tremors and physically deteriorate. Finally, on the day of the San Francisco earthquake in 1906, God abandoned Heaven. The Angel brings Prior a message for mankind—”stop moving!”—in the belief that if man ceases to progress, Heaven will be restored. Since the night of his vision, his health has once again started to decline. Belize believes that Prior is projecting his own fears of abandonment and death into an elaborate hallucination, but Prior suspects that his illness is the prophecy taking physical form, and that the only way the Angel can force him to deliver her message is for him to die.

Roy’s Decline

Roy lands at the hospital in the care of Belize, where his condition rapidly declines. He manages to use his political clout to acquire a private stash of the experimental drug AZT, at the expense of withholding the drug from participants in a drug trial. Alone in the hospital and fighting disbarment, Roy finds himself increasingly isolated, with only Belize, who despises him, and the ghost of Ethel for company.

Relationships Unravel

Prior goes to a Mormon visitors center to research angels, where he meets Hannah, who is volunteering there and taking care of Harper, who has slowly returned to reality but is now deeply depressed. Harper and Prior share a spark of recognition from their earlier shared dream, and witness a vision of Joe and Louis together. Louis is aghast to learn that Joe is a practicing Mormon and, regretting his actions and resistant to the intensity of Joe’s infatuation, begins to withdraw from Joe. He begs Prior’s forgiveness, which Prior angrily refuses, and Prior, who knows about Louis’ affair with Joe from his vision, becomes deeply hurt that Louis is attempting to move on.

Joe visits Roy, who is near death, and receives a final, paternal blessing from his mentor. However, when Joe confesses he has left Harper for a man, Roy rejects him in a violent reaction of fear and rage, ordering him to return to his wife and cover up his indiscretion. Joe returns to Harper and they have an unsatisfying sexual encounter, which prompts Harper to realize their marriage is over.

Prior, accompanied by Belize, jealously confronts a confused Joe at work, but the encounter descends into chaos when Belize recognizes Joe as Roy’s protegé. Belize informs Louis about Joe’s connection with Roy, whom Louis despises. Louis, as a result, researches Joe’s legal history and confronts him over a series of hypocritical and homophobic decisions Joe himself wrote. The confrontation turns violent, and Joe punches Louis in the face, ending their affair.

Roy’s Death

Ethel Rosenberg watches Roy suffer and decline before delivering the final blow as he lies dying: He has been disbarred after all. Delirious, Roy seems to mistake Ethel for his mother, begging her to comfort him, and Ethel sings a Yiddish lullaby as Roy appears to pass away. However, with a sudden burst of energy, he reveals that he has tricked her, viciously declaring that he has “finally [made] Ethel Rosenberg sing”. He then suffers a stroke and dies. After Roy’s death, Belize forces Louis to visit Roy’s hospital room, where they steal his stash of AZT for Prior. Belize asks Louis to recite the Kaddish for Roy. Unseen by the living, Ethel guides Louis through the prayer, symbolically forgiving Roy before she departs for the hereafter.

Wrestling the Angel

After his confrontation with Joe, Prior begins following him obsessively, neglecting his health. He collapses from pneumonia after following Joe to the Mormon center and Hannah rushes him back to the hospital. Prior tells her about his vision and is surprised when Hannah accepts this, based on her belief in angelic revelations within Latter-day Saint theology. At the hospital, the Angel reappears, enraged that Prior has rejected her message. Prior, on Hannah’s advice, wrestles the Angel, who relents and opens a ladder into Heaven. Prior climbs into Heaven and tells the council of Angels that he refuses to deliver their message, as without progress, humanity will perish, and begs them for more Life, no matter how horrible the prospect might be. He returns to his hospital bed, where he awakens from his vision with his fever broken and his health beginning to recover. He makes amends with Louis, but refuses to take him back. Meanwhile, Harper departs New York for San Francisco, leaving Joe alone.

Epilogue: 1990

The play concludes in 1990, five years later. Prior and Louis are still separated, but Louis, along with Belize, remain close in order to support and care for Prior, and Hannah has found new perspective on her rigid beliefs, forging a friendship with the three gay men. Prior, Louis, Belize, and Hannah gather before the angel statue in Bethesda Fountain, discussing the fall of the Soviet Union and what the future holds. Prior talks of the legend of the Pool of Bethesda, where the sick were healed. Prior delivers the play’s final lines directly to the audience, blessing them and affirming his intentions to live on and telling them that “the Great Work” shall continue.

Production History

Origins & Early Productions

Angels in America was commissioned by the Eureka Theatre Company in San Francisco, by co-artistic directors Oskar Eustis and Tony Taccone. It was first performed in Los Angeles as a workshop in May 1990 by the Center Theatre Group at the Mark Taper Forum.

Millennium Approaches premiered in May 1991 in a production performed by the Eureka Theatre Company of San Francisco, directed by David Esbjornson. In London it premiered in a National Theatre production at the Cottesloe Theatre, directed by Declan Donnellan. Henry Goodman played Cohn, Nick Reding played Joe, Felicity Montagu played Harper, Marcus D’Amico played Louis, and Sean Chapman played Prior. Opening on January 23, 1992, the London production ran for a year.

Perestroika Development

The play’s second part, Perestroika, was still being developed as Millennium Approaches was being performed. It was performed several times as staged readings by both the Eureka Theatre (during the world premiere of part one in 1991), and the Mark Taper Forum (in May 1992). It premiered in November 1992 in a production by the Mark Taper Forum, directed by Oskar Eustis and Tony Taccone. In November 1993 it received its London debut at the National Theatre on the Cottesloe stage, in repertory with a revival of Millennium Approaches. David Schofield played Cohn, Daniel Craig played Joe, Clare Holman played Harper, Jason Isaacs played Louis, Joseph Mydell played Belize and won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Actor, and Stephen Dillane played Prior.

Broadway Premiere (1993)

The entire two-part play debuted on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre in 1993, directed by George C. Wolfe, with Millennium Approaches performed on May 4 and Perestroika joining it in repertory on November 23, closing December 4, 1994. The original cast included Ron Leibman, Stephen Spinella, Kathleen Chalfant, Marcia Gay Harden, Jeffrey Wright, Ellen McLaughlin, David Marshall Grant and Joe Mantello. Among the replacements during the run were F. Murray Abraham (for Ron Leibman), Cherry Jones (for Ellen McLaughlin), Dan Futterman (for Joe Mantello), Cynthia Nixon (for Marcia Gay Harden) and Jay Goede (for David Marshall Grant). Millennium Approaches and Perestroika were awarded, in 1993 and 1994 respectively, both the Tony Awards for Best Play and Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Play.

2017 National Theatre Revival

In April 2017, a new production began previews at the Royal National Theatre in the Lyttelton Theatre. Directed by Marianne Elliott, the cast included Andrew Garfield as Prior Walter with Russell Tovey as Joe, Denise Gough as Harper, James McArdle as Louis Ironson, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as Belize and Nathan Lane as Roy Cohn. In April 2018, the production was nominated for six Olivier Awards, winning for Best Revival and Best Actress in a Supporting Role in a Play for Gough. The production was filmed and broadcast to cinemas around the world as part of the National Theatre Live initiative, and later released in 2021 on the company’s NT at Home streaming service.

2018 Broadway Revival

In February 2018, the 2017 Royal National Theatre production transferred to Broadway for an 18-week period at the Neil Simon Theatre. The majority of the London cast returned, with Lee Pace replacing Tovey as Joe, and Beth Malone playing the Angel at certain performances. Previews began on February 23, 2018, with opening night on March 25. The production won for Best Revival of a Play at that year’s Tony Awards, with Garfield and Lane winning for Best Actor in a Play and Best Featured Actor in a Play respectively for their reprisal of their National Theatre performances, while Denise Gough and Susan Brown were nominated for Best Featured Actress in a Play.

Adaptations

HBO Miniseries (2003)

In 2003, HBO Films created a miniseries adaptation of the play. Kushner adapted his original text for the screen, and Mike Nichols directed. HBO broadcast the film in various formats: three-hour segments 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 film in 2003 and won both the Golden Globe and Emmy for Best Limited Series.

Kushner made certain changes to his play (especially Part Two, Perestroika) for it to work on screen, but the HBO adaptation is generally a faithful representation of Kushner’s original work. Kushner has been quoted as saying that he knew Nichols was the right person to direct the film when, at their first meeting, Nichols immediately said that he wanted actors to play multiple roles, as had been done in stage productions.

The main cast consists of Al Pacino, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, Jeffrey Wright (reprising his Tony-winning Broadway role), Justin Kirk, Ben Shenkman, Patrick Wilson, and Mary-Louise Parker.

Opera (2004)

Angels in America – The Opera made its world premiere at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, France, on November 23, 2004. The opera was based on both parts of the Angels in America fantasia, however the script was re-worked and condensed to fit both parts into a two and half hour show. Composer Peter Eötvös explains: “In the opera version, I put less emphasis on the political line than Kushner…I rather focus on the passionate relationships, on the highly dramatic suspense of the wonderful text, on the permanently uncertain state of the visions.” A German version of the opera followed suit in mid-2005. The opera made its US debut in June 2006 at the Stanford Calderwood Pavilion in Boston, Massachusetts.

Awards & Recognition

Critical Reception & Cultural Legacy

The play garnered much praise upon its release for its dialogue and exploration of social issues. “Mr. Kushner has written the most thrilling American play in years,” wrote The New York Times. A decade after the play’s premiere, Metro Weekly labeled it “one of the most important pieces of theater to come out of the late 20th century.”

The New York Times, in 2018, described it: “Tony Kushner’s ‘gay fantasia,’ fusing the ambition, morality and underdog sympathies of earlier 20th century masters, felt not only like a great American play but like a culmination and reimagining of great American playness. It slammed a door open.”

Dissenting Views

By contrast, in an essay titled “Angles in America”, the cultural critic Lee Siegel wrote in The New Republic, “Angels in America is a second-rate play written by a second-rate playwright who happens to be gay, and because he has written a play about being gay, and about AIDS, no one—and I mean no one—is going to call Angels in America the overwrought, coarse, posturing, formulaic mess that it is.” In his 1995 book Homos, literary critic and queer theorist Leo Bersani called Angels in America a “muddled and pretentious play”, “[whose] enormous success […] is a sign, if we need still another one, of how ready and anxious America is to see and hear about gays—provided we reassure America how familiar, how morally sincere, and, particularly in the case of Kushner’s work, how innocuously full of significance we can be.”

Controversy & Culture Wars

In response to the frank treatment of homosexuality and AIDS, and brief male nudity, the play quickly became subject to controversial reaction from conservative and religious groups, sometimes labelled as being part of the “culture war”. In Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1996, there were protests held outside a production of the play by the Charlotte Repertory Theatre at the North Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center. This led to funding cuts for the Arts & Science Council of Charlotte, the city’s arts funding agency, in the following year. A 1999 production at Kilgore College, a community college in Kilgore, Texas, sparked protests from area and national homophobic groups and led to the town’s mayor and commissioners pulling funds for the Texas Shakespeare Festival, which the production’s director also ran. Kushner wrote a letter of support to the cast and crew, and the production did go forward.

Theatrical Style & Staging

Kushner prefers that the theatricality be transparent. In his notes about staging, he writes: “The plays benefit from a pared-down style of presentation, with scenery kept to an evocative and informative minimum. […] I recommend rapid scene shifts (no blackouts!), employing the cast as well as stagehands in shifting the scene. This must be an actor-driven event. […] The moments of magic […] are to be fully imagined and realized, as wonderful theatrical illusions—which means it’s OK if the wires show, and maybe it’s good that they do…”

Kushner is an admirer of Bertolt Brecht, who practiced a style of theatrical production whereby audiences were often reminded that they were in a theatre. The choice to have “no blackouts” allows audiences to participate in the construction of a malleable theatrical world.