DECEMBER 8, 1995 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

23

EVENINGS OUT

Touring Angels is grittier, closer to Kushner's vision

Angels in America

by Tony Kushner

Palace Theatre, Cleveland Ohio Theatre, Columbus

Reviewed by Barry Daniels

"Imagination can't create anything new, can it? It only recycles bits and pieces from the world and reassembles them into visions." These lines, spoken in the first act of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, aptly describe the effect of this great patchwork of a drama-in two parts and seven acts, plus an epilogue that manages to encompass a vision that is as vast as our great country itself.

Angels in America has been touring for over a year in an excellent production directed by Michael Mayer. I saw the play recently in Philadelphia and in many ways found the staging sharper and more faithful to the playwright's vision than the more glamorous Broadway production. The touring production is in Cleveland this weekend, December 5 through 10, and opens in Columbus on January 23.

Kushner's principal characters include a Mormon couple, Joe and Harper Pitt; a gay Jewish man, Louis Ironson, and his WASP lover Prior Walter, who has AIDS; Hannah Pitt, Joe's mother, who arrives from Salt Lake City after Joe tells her he is gay; Belize, a kindhearted nurse and sharp-tongued black drag queen; power-broker Roy Cohn, Joe's mentor; and an Angel. They are involved in a plot that exposes the corruption of rightwing politicians while mocking the overblown rhetoric of the left. It shows the tortured mentality of the closeted, and confronts the trauma of dealing with AIDS. The personal relationships of the principal characters are set against a sense of the history of immigration and migration that created

America. Finally, there are Angels, abandoned by God at the beginning of this century, who are determined to make Prior a prophet who will aid them in their plan to prevent progress.

Kushner's inventive imagination startles and enthralls over the production's seven hours. The great set pieces are as vivid as they were when I saw the Broadway production. These include the dream-hallucination scene for Prior and Harper; Roy Cohn's "I'm not a homosexual" speech; Prior's confrontation with the Angel at the beginning of Part II; the blending of the real and the imaginary in the Mormon Visitor's Center diorama; the hauntingly poignant epilogue.

Michael Mayer's staging more clearly underscores the differences between the play's two parts. The first part, Millennium Approaches, is set against stark black columns. Actors move the simple furniture props on and off stage. The action moves rapidly. We sympathize with Louis' anguish over his inability to deal with Prior's illness, and we are deeply moved by Joe's struggle as he tries to face his homosexuality. Roy Cohn fascinates us with his sleazy bravado.

Perestroika, the second part, is set in what looks like a warehouse for some kind of cosmic flea market. The stage is lined and backed by shelves filled with the debris of civilization. Kushner elaborates his themes and moves the action towards an optimistic conclusion in which love and justice unite to create a new world where forgiveness can exist. Perestroika is less dramatically forceful than Millennium Approaches, and I think Kushner has less control of his diverse elements, but it is nonetheless a dazzling display of theatricality and intelligence.

The cast was uniformly excellent. I was sorry not to see Jonathan Hadary play Roy Cohn, but his understudy John Herrara was

fine in the part. Rick Holmes was a gentle and tortured Joe. Reg Flowers was an affecting and bitchy Belize. Carolyn Smith's Angel was both kitschy and terrifying. Pamela Burrell was a quietly centered Hannah Pitt as well as a calmly vengeful ghost of Ethel Rosenberg. Cleveland and Columbus will see three major cast changes as Todd Weeks and Douglas Harmsen will take over the roles of Prior and Louis and Sarah Underwood will play Harper.

My single disappointment with Michael Mayer's staging of the play was a rushed quality to the love scenes between Louis and Joe at the beginning of Perestroika. Material was cut from these scenes. There was little

erotic tension, and the actors did not play the poignancy of desire and need. The overall effect of this clarified Kushner's politics but diminished the dramatic interest and decreased Joe's complexity.

The Broadway production of Angels in America coincided with a peak in the gay visibility movement. That production was slick and chic, and was blessed with an extraordinary cast. The touring production is grittier, more theatrical and more clearly represents Kushner's ideas. It is a remarkable piece of writing and an important examination of what it means to be gay in America in the 1990s.

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Cleveland Public Theatre

The Willies Chicago-based performer Jenny Magnus brings her one-woman show to CPT for its Cleveland debut. Full of horror and charm, the show probes the mysterious anxieties that keep us up at night. December 14-16

presents

*

All shows start at 8 PM

One weekend only! For tickets, call CPT at 631-2727

also in December...

Tale of the Emerald Bird

CPT's exclusive annual holiday show

December 15-31, call 631-2727 for specific dates and reservations

12 Bands of Christmas

fun, food, live music, the best shopping in town December 20, 6:30 til God knows when

6415 Betrelt: 631-2727

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