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The Phoenix artistic community was out in full support of Gammage bringing in real theatre instead of Cats, or Phantom of the Opera, the safe crowd pleasers. Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and its companion Perestroika pack hard hitting, political commentary along with plenty of swearing, frank discussions about sex and full frontal male nudity.
Playwright Tony Kushner was commissioned in 1987 to write a piece about San Francisco's gay scene. What he created was 10 hours of material that was parred down to 7 hours and 20 characters about gays, AIDS, New York, Mormons, politics, love, betrayal, pain, and hope. For his efforts, Kushner and America have won many awards nationally and world wide, including Tony awards for Best Play in 1993 for Millennium and Perestroika in 1994.
I sat expectantly, waiting to be bowled over with deep, meaningful dialogue, fantastic acting, and rolling emotions.
The plot, briefly, is about two couples. In Part One, a gay man leaves his lover who has AIDS (Prior). A "straight" couple is unhappy and Mormon. Roy Cohn, based on the actual D.C. lawyer, asks the troubled Mormon, Joe, to be his aide. Then an angel appears to Prior at the end of Millennium. In Part Two, Joe has an affair with the gay lover who left, the Mormon's wife takes off in her mind to Antarctica, Roy Cohn develops AIDS and sees the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, and Prior is consistently bombarded by his arousing angel.
After Millennium concluded, I was still waiting to be awestruck. The play was building in intensity, and I couldn't wait to see what happened in Perestroika. Unfortunately, Part One delivered more than Part Two. In fact, Perestroika concluded with a patronizing epilogue, preaching in 5 minutes what Kushner tried to accomplish in the previous 7 hours.
Part One tackles many issues besides just homosexuals and AIDS. Race, love and betrayal are facts of life that every human can relate to. The time on stage was divided evenly between all the characters and stories. No one character appeared to stand out as "the star." Part Two, however, could have been subtitled "Prior's Song." Kushner wrote the Prior character for his friend, actor Stephen Spinella who won a Tony award for his part. Maybe that had something to do with Prior taking the lead and overshadowing the other characters' stories. But I found Prior in Part Two reduced to obvious steals of drag queen behavior, reciting Wizard of Oz lines and the like. I felt cheated.
The only other character besides Prior that was truly three dimensional was the despicable but wonderful Roy Cohn. A closeted gay that died of AIDS in 1986, Cohn was around for the execution of Ethal Rosenberg as well as playing a large role in the McCarthy hearings. Jonathan Hadary as Cohn had our full attention when he graced the stage. His speech in Part One explaining the real truth behind labels was the best part of the play. I was hoping for more moments of Epiphany like that one. His lines were the most memorable; Cohn refuses to share his contraband AZT with Belize, he and Prior's gay nurse, and Belize breaks down spewing racial epithets, and Cohn returns his hate with "Now you can have a bottle."
Robert Sella, a Chapparal High School graduate, returned to Phoenix with this touring production and did an outstanding job. Rick Holmes did a predictable job with Joe, but showed real range when getting to play Prior I, a ghost farmer from the 13th century that died from the Plague. Peter Birkenhead was ok as the New York, Jewish lover who thinks he has something important to say. Nathan Hinton, the understudy for Reg Flowers, was wonderful as Belize, the queenie nurse who fights with Cohn and Louis.
The only character that is absolutely heterosexual is the Mormon wife, Harper, who stays stoned on Valium. In Kushner's world, everyone is gay or pretending to be straight but just waiting for the opportunity to be shown the light. This was more apparent in Part Two. Even Joe's Mormon mother that arrives from Utah is seen giving a lesbian nurse a good look over after her meeting with the Angel.
In this production, the straight male parts were played by women. Pamela Burrell changed from Rabbi to Angel to Cohn's aide, Henry. She was best as Joe's mother, Hannah Pitt. Carolyn Swift played smaller roles. Emily the dyke nurse, Ella Chapter, Hannah's Mormon smoking friend, and the Angel. Kate Goehring played Harper and didn't have much to do but whine in Part One and ruthlessly bash Mormon's in Part Two. For her one try as a male, sidekick Martin Heller, she didn't come off too well.
My question to anyone else out there that has seen the entire production is this: what was the Angel trying to say? She was struggling to say something important, but other than saying that God had gone AWOL, what message was she giving to Prior? It's up to us mortals on earth to get along? I spent 7 hours for "play nice" and the golden rule?
Angels is a New York play. Intellectual, politically correct, Jewish, Black, sophisticated, whiny, funny and not afraid to be poignant. I think Angels is more significant for what it "did" than what it "is." What it did was bring a lot of gays and AIDS issues to mainstream American theatre. However, there are other better AIDS plays, like Stephen Dietz's Lonely Planet that Actor's Theatre of Phoenix produced last year.
I'm glad to have gotten the opportunity to see it. Bottom line, see Part One; it delivers. Part Two meanders, preaches, and falls short of the aspirations of the play.
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