Angels in America: Millennium Approaches

Rating:
Summary: Embarrasing, insulting, unfunny, and just plain bad
Review: Selections from a paper I wrote about this play. If you want the whole thing, email me--- The type of play we often call an "issues play" is difficult to write. Obviously, a social issue is examined by a playwright through a story involving characters affected by and affecting the specific issue. The issue must be dealt with both frankly and sensitively, seriously yet with a touch of humor, and realistically while still remaining universal enough for all audiences. Tony Kushner fails to find these delicate balances in his thoroughly obnoxious Angels in America Part 1: Millennium Approaches. Kushner tries to be sensitive, but ends up only looking like he is clumsily and unashamedly digging for pity. As for frankness, Kushner lacks not. To show us the extent of Prior's disease, Kushner feels the need to strip him completely down on stage. Again, Kushner is basically evoking pity, saying "look at this poor man! This is what homophobic white male supremacists have done to us!" Kushner has no problems remaining serious. He deals with a serious disease, a man's serious denial, and many other very, very serious issues. His problem is finding the humor. His script is a series of stilted, melodramatic scenes lightened with only awkward and supposedly comedic moments. They are only funny in the sense that the writing is so laughably bad. Is Angels in America realistic? Well, if you are a conservative straight white male who has never had any contact with homosexuality, you would think so. All the gay men are depicted as promiscuous "queen" types who cry and complain about everything. One thing Kushner does do right is explore many aspects of homosexuality through an array of characters. The characters are just completely one-dimensional and irksome. Probably the worst thing about the play was the incessant complaining. Never did a character overcome something and end up stronger. Even in the end, where we assume Joe and Louis end up together, one can only assume that it will end badly with Joe returning to the closet because of his religion and Louis not waiting around for him. All the characters are fundamentally weak. I apologize for speaking so negatively of such a renowned play, but I found it dull, preachy, whiny, and downright offensive. I understand the significance of this work. It was the very first play to explore these issues, which was the sole reason it won awards. Kushner, in reality, needs to examine his writing significantly. Had I not known Kushner was gay, I would have thought a straight male wrote this play to show what terrible people homosexuals are, to justify all the reasons they are to be scorned and hated, and to explain why God would send his angels to kill them off first. But, people love issues plays. They love to be able to read a play and feel like humanity has hope. The fact that Angels in America won the Pulitzer Prize does not give me much.

Rating:
Summary: Loneliness: The Ultimate Human Batal
Review: The play written by Tony Kushner carries a vital message to today's society. The characters in the play are well thought out and developed for the duration of the play. Through the development of the characters, the reader becomes heavily involved and entangled in the struggles faced by the characters. Kushner is able to carefully weave characters together effectively including a Valium addicted housewife and a homosexual drag queen. The play is brillantly put together, causing the characters to be in direct conflict with one another and, at times, themselves. Roy Cohn, for example, is a homosexual bigot whose very existence contradicts itself. The play ultimately has little resolution. Roy dies still denying what he is, Joe is with Harper, and most of the other characters find themselves at the end of the play in a similar predicament they were in at the beginning. The one thing that does change is the characters no longer have a feeling of loneliness. Loneliness seems to be the central issue of the play. It has an effect on all human beings, no matter what their differences. Through Kushner's play, a very strong and effective message is sent out that homosexuals are human too and their suffering is just as great as the heterosexual society. In essence, Angels in America should be considered a milestone. It captures some of the injustices and struggles faced by a large group of the American population in today's world. The play demonstrates that while the group being discriminated against may have changed, the feelings of those in the minority have not changed. This shows how all groups, including the majority, are equally human because of their fear of loneliness.

Rating:
Summary: A homespun epic
Review: This is a play providing scene after scene of intense power and truth. What may be most incredible is that this work explores nearly every facet of American life in the modern world- AIDS, family, religion, sexual orientation, truth, the struggle to survive, community- and somehow presents the whole package in a way that is lovingly attentive to detail and very accessible. The storyline is intricate- Prior,a man with aids finds out he's a prophet, his ex-lover Louis moves in with Joe, a closeted Mormon lawyer who leaves his valium addict wife Harper to fend off her drug induced illusions, God has abandoned heaven and mankind,and somehow Roy Cohn, a gay black nurse named Belize and Joe's Mormon mother Hannah come into the story. Kushner's genius is that he has found a way to marry grandiose schemes and themes with characters who come alive off the page and honestly make you weep. At once funny, tragic, and always vibrant, Angels in America takes on the world and delivers an entire universe. The best play of the nineties, perhaps one of the greatest ever written. Astonishing.

Rating:
Summary: A homespun epic
Review: This is a play providing scene after scene of intense power and truth. What may be most incredible is that this work explores nearly every facet of American life in the modern world- AIDS, family, religion, sexual orientation, truth, the struggle to survive, community- and somehow presents the whole package in a way that is lovingly attentive to detail and very accessible. The storyline is intricate- Prior,a man with aids finds out he's a prophet, his ex-lover Louis moves in with Joe, a closeted Mormon lawyer who leaves his valium addict wife Harper to fend off her drug induced illusions, God has abandoned heaven and mankind,and somehow Roy Cohn, a gay black nurse named Belize and Joe's Mormon mother Hannah come into the story. Kushner's genius is that he has found a way to marry grandiose schemes and themes with characters who come alive off the page and honestly make you weep. At once funny, tragic, and always vibrant, Angels in America takes on the world and delivers an entire universe. The best play of the nineties, perhaps one of the greatest ever written. Astonishing.

Rating:
Summary: Best play I've read in a LONG time...
Review: This is the most moving and well-written play I've encountered in quite some time if not ever. Very impressive! I have read both halves and both are incredible. Very much worth reading!

Rating:
Summary: Kushner's like a defiant baby whining for attention
Review: This play is a horrible attempt at gay propaganda. It is an attempt by another liberal in search of attention to implant his ideals in our unsuspecting minds. The play is a disgusting sacrilege and an attempt to gain applause and attention by shocking and pushing perversity upon us. Another example of liberal media Ameríca's inability to be witty or decent and just shock and disgust us to the point where we think it is great art or something. Reading this play is a depressing experience.

Rating:
Summary: Kushner's like a defiant baby whining for attention
Review: This play is a horrible attempt at gay propaganda. It is an attempt by another liberal in search of attention to implant his ideals in our unsuspecting minds. The play is a disgusting sacrilege and an attempt to gain applause and attention by shocking and pushing perversity upon us. Another example of liberal media Ameríca's inability to be witty or decent and just shock and disgust us to the point where we think it is great art or something. Reading this play is a depressing experience.

Rating:
Summary: Angels in America is a story of love, happiness, sadness etc
Review: Tony Kushner has an interesting way of showing his audience how reality isn't really fun at all. He walks us through the lives of a group of people in which they all know each other somewhere along the line. Tragedy has struck a gay couple...AIDS. Prior contracted aids, hence, his boyfriend decided to leave him. Joe is a married man who is in the closet about being gay, whereas, his wife Harper is an agoraphobic addicted to valium. Life isn't very simple among this group. Kushner somehow makes this story somewhat beautiful. As Prior is dying, Kushner has this Angel come and comfort him. He shows his audience how one may deal with such issues. He sends the message that when things go wrong, stay strong and follow your heart, and everything will turn out okay. Some of the characters in Angels in America changed throughout the story, which made things all the more interesting. For instance, I first perceived Joe as this sweet, original, money making husband. I eventually realized that he was different than what I thought. He turned out to be a confused, gay, and sometimes weak person.

Overall, I think Kushner did a wonderful job in writing this book. There were plenty of times where I found myself to not be able to put down the book. It was very creative, truthful, loving, sad, hopeful, tragic, and powerful. I know that Tony Kushner is an excellent writer just because he can smoothly combine all of those emotions into one story, and make it sound good. Angels in America is an excellent novel, and I would recommend it to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Close as you can come to reviewing Nichols' great HBO film
Review: Tony Kushner's "Angels in America: Millenium Approaches" is as close as you can come right now to reviewing the recent six-hour HBO special directed by Mike Nichols. That was set as two three-hour pieces, playing on back-to-back weekends. The first weekend was the complete three-act 'Millenium Approaches'; the second was Kushner's follow-up, 'Perestroika.'

'Millenium Approaches' won a Pulitzer for Kushner, and it's easy to see why. It's an amazingly literate discourse and masterful interweaving of three strands of gay life in America as it stood before triple therapy arrived and slowed down the impact of AIDS.

By contrast, 'Perestroika' feels different and distant - lots of soliloquies, extreme anger, archsymbolism - I felt like the high point of the six-hour spread was the angel's dramatic appearance at the end of 'Millenium.'

Remembering back to the play, I think all the actors in Nichols adaptation really found new levels for each of their characters. For example, Pacino nailed Roy Cohn's perverse sense of logic: homosexuals (and you can hear the quotes around it when Pacino utters the word) have no power; I have power; I am not a homosexual; therefore, I do not have AIDS, I have liver cancer. I've read Cohn's biography and this is truly the way he saw things. Kushner has him nailed & Pacino really captures the essence of Kushner's words.

The other thing worth noting is that Mary-Louise Parker does wonders with the role of Harper Pitt. I remember thinking of the character as overwhelmed on stage (compared to the other actors), but, wow, does she stand out in Nichols' adaptation. It's the best performance in the film, in my eyes.

Rating:
Summary: Kushner Cultivates a Meaningful Fantasy: Angels in America
Review: Tony Kushner's Angels in America skillfully presents genuine American tragedies through drug-induced hallucinations and dreams as well as other fantasy and actual events. Kushner deals with intense emotions that arise from loss, addiction, love, sexuality, and sickness. Joe, a clerk for an influential New York city judge, has hidden part of himself while married to Harper, a fearful woman addicted to antidepressant medication. Eventually, no longer able to deny his desires, Joe succumbs to a risky relationship that solidifies who he is.

Angels in America courageously stands in the face of stereotypes and embraces individual development. Joe is first an apologetic, passive businessman and husband. His identity becomes clear as he allows himself to develop into a more truthful person. Roy, on the other hand, is a stubborn, arrogant, mean-spirited lawyer. As his illness worsens, he continues to build walls hiding who he really is. Refreshingly, Kushner provides fascinating characters with realistic strengths and flaws.

Kushner not only brilliantly captures real personalities while dealing with fantasy, but also relates them to the complicated, sometimes heartless world in which they exist. He poignantly addresses the loneliness and loss that is living, but does so with a sharp humor that keeps the pages rapidly turning. Angels in America is an incredible dramatic masterpiece that challenges both American ideals and one's own soul.