Rating: 
Summary: Great Prose Squandered for the Sake of a Hollow Vision
Review: I recall the critical reception that Angels in America received at the time of its initial Broadway run. At that time, it was edgy enough to make many audience members uncomfortable --which it would certainly not do today -- yet it also came at just the right moment to be a coming-of-age manifesto for the gay rights movement. Only the boldest of critics would have dared to disparage it during that heydey of political correctness. And it isn't a horrible play; it's only horribly flawed. But it was also perfectly positioned to capture a mass audience. It seemed transgressive enough to lure aging baby boomers into a sense that they were seeing something risque (the same way much simplistic, commercial hip hop does), yet it piled on enough superficial schlock to make them feel good. This is not to say that the plays don't have great moments; they do. These are individuals scenes, individual lines, one or two extended speeches and sequences. These are sufficient to give the plays an illusion of depth, an illusion of grandiosity and significance. But Kushner lacks the vision to make the plays as a whole truly deep, to put his good moments at the service of a great idea (as opposed to a trite, cloying idea). And he lacks the discipline to purge the plays of their truly atrocious moments, which include some incredibly stereotypical characters, redundant monologues that do nothing but bluster and a drawn-out ending so banal and embarrassing that it is shocking to me that someone did not force Kushner to change it. There is also a lot of second-rate let's-laugh-at-the-Republicans-style humor. There are also many religious ideas being thrown around loosely and ultimately put at the service of a formula no more sophisticated than what Harold Bloom identifies in The Anxiety of Influence as Milton's weak Satanic proclamation "[e]vil, be thou my good," which reduces the grandeur of Satan to a mere childish rebellion. If I were to describe the overall feel of the plays, it would be like Dostoevsky's The Possessed (better translated as Demons) being written by Ron Howard.I am aware that I am bucking the critical tide on this, but I would be surprised if fifty years down the road Angels in America has anything near the status that it does today. We are still too close in time to Angels in America to be able to judge it at the kind of critical distance necessary to separate ourselves from the political and emotional tenor of the moment, on which the plays so strongly depend for their sustenance. Suffice it to say that I have never seen or read another major play nor read a major novel that is so cheap, so full of cliches, so not in control of its own vision. It has, in many ways, all the big flaws of a Hollywood end-of-year blockbuster, which takes whatever good ideas it might have had and ruins them. While the Nichols movie version unquestionably plays up some of the bad stuff, its bigger problem is what it cannot possibly play down, what is, in other words, there in the text. As a recent reviewer wrote, speaking of the movie version: "After five and a half hours of taking up your time, what does Angels reward you with? A version of heaven that seems cribbed from those old 'Calvin Klein Obsession' ads, the inane conclusion that God deserves to be 'sued', and the oldest screenwriting cop-out in the book: hinting that it all may have just been a dream. This is followed by a lame Wizard of Oz reference that essentially mocks everything it just attempted to say, and more false endings than Sugar Ray Leonard's boxing career. My grandmother, a wise old schoolteacher-type, used to be fond of reminding people that 'an emptiest barrel makes the most noise.' While Angels in America does have some redeeming qualities and a handful of good performances, what has it really said after taking up six hours of the audience's time? That AIDS is a terrible disease? That there just might not be a God up there watching over us? That, as Woody Allen once said, life is full of misery, loneliness and suffering - and it's all over much too soon? Or perhaps, as Jerry Springer said, that we should take care of ourselves and each other? With all the noise this empty barrel makes, it's amazing that it still manages to be so full of itself."
Rating:
Summary: Great Prose Squandered for the Sake of a Hollow Vision
Review: I recall the critical reception that Angels in America received at the time of its initial Broadway run. At that time, it was edgy enough to make many audience members uncomfortable --which it would certainly not do today -- yet it also came at just the right moment to be a coming-of-age manifesto for the gay rights movement. Only the boldest of critics would have dared to disparage it during that heydey of political correctness. And it isn't a horrible play; it's only horribly flawed. But it was also perfectly positioned to capture a mass audience. It seemed transgressive enough to lure aging baby boomers into a sense that they were seeing something risque (the same way much simplistic, commercial hip hop does), yet it piled on enough superficial schlock to make them feel good. This is not to say that the plays don't have great moments; they do. These are individuals scenes, individual lines, one or two extended speeches and sequences. These are sufficient to give the plays an illusion of depth, an illusion of grandiosity and significance. But Kushner lacks the vision to make the plays as a whole truly deep, to put his good moments at the service of a great idea (as opposed to a trite, cloying idea). And he lacks the discipline to purge the plays of their truly atrocious moments, which include some incredibly stereotypical characters, redundant monologues that do nothing but bluster and a drawn-out ending so banal and embarrassing that it is shocking to me that someone did not force Kushner to change it. There is also a lot of second-rate let's-laugh-at-the-Republicans-style humor. There are also many religious ideas being thrown around loosely and ultimately put at the service of a formula no more sophisticated than what Harold Bloom identifies in The Anxiety of Influence as Milton's weak Satanic proclamation "[e]vil, be thou my good," which reduces the grandeur of Satan to a mere childish rebellion. If I were to describe the overall feel of the plays, it would be like Dostoevsky's The Possessed (better translated as Demons) being written by Ron Howard. I am aware that I am bucking the critical tide on this, but I would be surprised if fifty years down the road Angels in America has anything near the status that it does today. We are still too close in time to Angels in America to be able to judge it at the kind of critical distance necessary to separate ourselves from the political and emotional tenor of the moment, on which the plays so strongly depend for their sustenance. Suffice it to say that I have never seen or read another major play nor read a major novel that is so cheap, so full of cliches, so not in control of its own vision. It has, in many ways, all the big flaws of a Hollywood end-of-year blockbuster, which takes whatever good ideas it might have had and ruins them. While the Nichols movie version unquestionably plays up some of the bad stuff, its bigger problem is what it cannot possibly play down, what is, in other words, there in the text. As a recent reviewer wrote, speaking of the movie version: "After five and a half hours of taking up your time, what does Angels reward you with? A version of heaven that seems cribbed from those old 'Calvin Klein Obsession' ads, the inane conclusion that God deserves to be 'sued', and the oldest screenwriting cop-out in the book: hinting that it all may have just been a dream. This is followed by a lame Wizard of Oz reference that essentially mocks everything it just attempted to say, and more false endings than Sugar Ray Leonard's boxing career. My grandmother, a wise old schoolteacher-type, used to be fond of reminding people that 'an emptiest barrel makes the most noise.' While Angels in America does have some redeeming qualities and a handful of good performances, what has it really said after taking up six hours of the audience's time? That AIDS is a terrible disease? That there just might not be a God up there watching over us? That, as Woody Allen once said, life is full of misery, loneliness and suffering - and it's all over much too soon? Or perhaps, as Jerry Springer said, that we should take care of ourselves and each other? With all the noise this empty barrel makes, it's amazing that it still manages to be so full of itself."
Rating: 
Summary: The Great Work begins...
Review: I went out and bought this almost immediately after I watched the HBO miniseries. I must say, Tony Kushner's masterpiece looks very good on screen, and it stays pretty faithful to this book (script) with only a few minor changes, most noticeably in Part Two, Perestroika.
I normally don't like reading plays, finding the stage directions and minimal characterizations ungainly and somehow disappointing. After reading this, though, I have to admit, Angels in America looks fabulous anywhere: stage, screen, or in this case, even on paper.
In the beginning, Kushner gives some "performance notes" about staging. There should be minimal scenery and props, scene changes should be fluid and easy, without the use of blackouts, perhaps suggesting a "single stream of conscious thought onstage." The special effects (flying, magical appearances) need not be perfect; wires may show, and perhaps it is best if they do; as if the magic of the theater is able to express the *magic* on stage. Reading this script opens a whole new door for people who have only seen the HBO mini-series. And while, I'm sure, seeing it onstage is best, reading the script is still an amazing experience.
What Tony Kushner has accomplished in Angels in America is by and far one of the most extraordinary experiences that one is likely to have the pleasure of benefitting from. I know of no other play, or other dramatic enterprise, that engages the mind so thoroughly, in discussion of some of the most complex and controversial issues of our time, or any time.
When reading this, you may feel overwhelmed. There appears to be so much happening, and the events may seem a complicated and tangled web. However, once you reach the end, to Prior's haunting yet uplifing closing monologue, there is a part of you that will understand it,no matter how small it may be. It sinks in, the message, the beauty, the pure humannes of the story, and you are changed.
The Great Work begins...
Rating: 
Summary: Angels in America opens new doors for a new generation
Review: I've never read a book that has left me with the shocking impact that 'Angels in America' has left me. At first I felt that the book was very confusing with all of the characters, but once the storyline became clear to me, I was able to get into the heart of the matter. Tony Kushner really touches on a subject that affects today's society in an unforgettable way that no other writer has been able to do. His identification with AIDS is profound, although the book takes place at a time when AIDS was still unknown and misunderstood. Today's society may be more accepting of people's different lifestyles, but there is still a division in our beliefs and opinions. Kushner has helped me to believe that just because you are different doesn't mean you are not a human being. It's what's inside of the person that matters the most. It's what the person has to give to others that makes them human beings. Kushner's characters all have a unique personality about them; they are all different. But in the end we find that every person in the book have something in common, and that is what makes them become one in the end. It's what makes them all connected in the same way. Prior and Louis are two of the best characters in the book. Through them, all of the other characters become connected somehow by the end of the book. They all meet under strange circumstances, but it is those odd circumstances that make the book so spectacular. Roy is the most profound character that I have ever come across. He has an incurable disease that is taking his life, yet he remains in denial until the end leaving me with the question of whether the disease ever destroyed him or if he destroyed the disease. I think the two chracters, Joe and Harper, stand for what every person goes through some time in their lives. Our world is full of confusion and decisions, the hardest thing to do is keep yourself straight, so to speak, but Joe and Harper become the victims of an uncompassionate society; a society that abandons them. The issues revealed in this book are issues that most people want to hide from. No one wants to talk about politics, homosexuality, AIDS, or religion, and to combine all these issues in one book was a very bold stand Kushner took. Instead of denying all these issues or brushing them off, 'Angels in America' talks about them just like two guys talking about baseball. These issues were brought to the surface where they remained evident throughout the book wanting me to read more in the end. Although I felt the book was surprisingly full of language and explicit details, details I sometimes think should have been left to my imagination, I can't help but appreciate the truth that it provided for me by being so real and surprising. We live in a sheltered world where we want to shelter our children from all that can harm them, but in the end we don't realize that it is the sheltering that does the most damage to our youth. This book has taught me to never deny or abandon the beliefs I have grown up with or the things my parents have taught me, but at the same time, I should never abandon the person I have become.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding! Highly recommend that everyone read.
Review: If I wasn't required to read "Angels in America" I probably would have never had the chance to experience one of the most heart felt books ever read. I'm not one to read and this book from the first page grabbed me and practically sucked me in. I found myself unable to put it down. I wanted to read more and more just to find out what was going to happen next. I admire how Kurshner gets the reader so in tuned to the book. He has a way of grasping the readers attention and keeping the readers attention til the very end. Although some parts of the book through me off a bit, overall I could really relate to what was being explained. I liked especially how Kurshner talks about real issues that many people in society today turn their heads on and even sometimes discriminate against. I have extremem respect for people who are not afraid to be themselves and don't care what others may think of them. Kurshner presents three different prespectives on homosexuality. One of a couple very open about their sexuality, anotherof a man who isn't really sure of it and last a man who is living in denial. All are very real situations that society is faced with today. Also, there is a large number of people living with AIDS and are trying to cope with it as best they can. I experienced loosing a close friend of the family who was homosexual with AIDS and I know how hard it is to watch someone you love so much just wither away slowly and to see such fear in that persons eyes. It really makes an impact on ones life. I can't explain in words how I felt when I finished this book. All I can say is that it made me realize that life is short and we shouldn't take it for granted. Society spends to much time critizing people instead of making friends and enjoying having the opportunity to experience and know so may unique individuals. Again I say this book was fabulous.
Rating: 
Summary: This ain't no angel, it's a turkey!
Review: If you were one of not a few people who sat through the stage production of Angels in America trying to squelch the little voice that kept crying out, "But the emperor is butt nekkid!," let it be silent no longer. This book is irrefutable evidence that it is so. Shorn of the splashy production gimmicks and bereft of actors who can rise above the banal material, this play is revealed as a sophmoric, sentimental and slipshod piece of politically correct feel-goodism. Both the dialogue and the handling of the plot are embarrassingly awkward. The play reads as an exercise in adolescent hysteria masquerading as theatre. Despite my own experiences and attitudes regarding AIDS, I have to say that this bloated and pretentious vehicle would never have seen the light of day if it hadn't been about AIDS.
Rating:
Summary: Bound by the beauty
Review: In this epic play, subtitled a Gay Fantasia on National Themes, we follow the lives of a small group of people struggling with AIDS, love, and the meaning of forgiveness. Prior Walter has AIDS, and his lover Louis leaves him because he cannot handle it. Prior is later visited by the Angel, who deems him a prophet, but of what? Louis meets Joe whose marriage is collapsing, and the two find solace in each other. Roy Cohn is one of the most powerful men in America, so he cannot have AIDS because that would be a sign of weakness. Instead, he has cancer. "Angels in America" is a fantastic meditation on love and politics in the beginning years of the AIDS crisis that still has relevance today with its message of greater love and acceptance.
Rating:
Summary: Love, fear and courage in the chaos of American society.
Review: My first reaction to the play Angels in America was one of joy. It was joy in response to the unbelievable, uncompromising work that I had just read. The play as a whole not only did justice to the issues and themes that it dealt with but it gave the reader a glance into how those issues function on a real and tangable level. While reading this play I was concerned that because the play did not cop- out or circumvent any of the gritty details all I would feel was shock, but soon that feer was quelled.It was replaced with a sense of awe that someone could so realisticly portray such a managerie of intense emotions in so many different types of characters. The six main characters Joe, Harper, Louis , Belize, Prior and Roy are all haunted by their own ghosts and wrestle with their own demons. Prior with his emminent death from AIDS, Louis with the guilt that he loves Prior but has not the courage to stand by him in his time of need. Or Joe who is struggling with his marriage, sexuality and religon all at once. It seemed that this was a play written from the perspective of out gay men, but that was short- sighted , it is a tale that is writen from a minority position. Any one or any group that has had to struggle to find their place or some semblance of equality know and can relate to the themes that are present in this work. Every aspect of this play weither it be the issue of race, hate, love, fear, sexuality or death they are all crafted in such a way that you are shocked, appauled and riveted at how they function in not only these characters lives but in the fabric of American society.
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: The best plays I've ever read.
Review: These two plays, in tandem, have forever changed the way that I look at a theatrical production forever. Creative but not contrived, the themes are powerful and the staging is poetic -- it does help to see the productions to get the full idea of what the author is after. But if you're like me, you will, after reading the plays, pay any price to see these historic works on stage. Unreal
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