Review Roundup: ANGELS IN AMERICA

Signature Theatre Company presents the first New York revival of Tony Kushner's ANGELS IN AMERICA: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, directed by Michael Greif. ANGELS IN AMERICA opens Thursday, October 28 at the Peter Norton Space (555 West 42nd Street). The play began previews on September 14. Millennium Approaches and Perestroika, the two parts of ANGELS IN AMERICA, alternate in repertory.

ANGELS IN AMERICA features Robin Bartlett as Hannah Pitt, Christian Borle as Prior Walter, Bill Heck as Joe Pitt, Zoe Kazan as Harper Pitt, Billy Porter as Belize, Zachary Quinto as Louis Ironson, Robin Weigert as The Angel and Frank Wood as Roy Cohn, with Eric Bryant as Man 1 and Hubert Point-Du Jour as Man 2.

Ben Brantley, NY Times: For "Angels" to register seismic tremors again, it would need to be seriously rethought and reinterpreted by its director. Mr. Greif ("Rent," "Next to Normal") hasn't done that. His "Angels," which is presented at its full seven-hour length (with some emendations by Mr. Kushner in the second half, "Perestroika"), is instead a glowingly acted, straightforward version that does an admirable job of replicating the coups de théâtre of George C. Wolfe's original staging on a less operatic scale. 

Micheal Sommers, NJ Newsroom: With performances so variable in quality, "Angels in America" doesn't fly as high as might be hoped. Or perhaps the waning of middle-1990s society's pre-millennial jitters in the ugly face of our present-day realities has clipped the play's fearsome wings a bit.

Elysa Gardner, USA Today: Exploring all this over nearly seven hours, through interwoven stories that draw on history and fantasy, is a tantalizingly tall order. But this new production, which opened off-Broadway Thursday at Signature Theatre Company's Peter Norton Space, is decidedly life-sized, emphasizing the humanity and vulnerability of each character.

Charles McNulty, LA Times: The revival doesn't have the same millennial urgency of the original Broadway staging or even the retrospective brooding of the Nichols miniseries. The scenes unfold modestly on the cramped Peter Norton Space stage, inviting us into a proximity that doesn't always flatter the actors, some of whom seem to be choking on mouthfuls of Kushner's cumbersome language. At times, their interactions seem more acted than lived. There are searing moments, but I sensed a remove between imagination and experience. 

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter: There's no denying that the plays can feel overlong and overwritten at times. (There's a lengthy scene late in the second part, "Perestroika," depicting a debate in heaven, which is particularly deadly.) But this wonderfully staged and acted revival provides ample evidence, if any was needed, that "Angels" is as immediate and vital now as it was nearly two decades ago.

Mark Kennedy, Associated Press: The Signature Theatre Company has just such a precious stone in Tony Kushner's "Angels in America," an astonishing seven-hour epic whose power hasn't dimmed since its two parts were first staged in the early 1990s.

Marylin Stasio, Variety: Christian Borle ("Legally Blonde," "Spamalot") is instantly believable and never less than heartbreaking as Prior Walter, whose sweet temper survives even the worst agonies of AIDS. If ever anyone deserved a visit from an angel, this man is it. As the hard-hearted guy who dumps Prior when he's diagnosed with the then-fatal disease, Louis Ironson (Zachary Quinto) has a hard time convincing even a good friend like Belize (Billy Porter, wonderful in every way) -- let alone an audience that has taken Prior to its bosom -- that he shouldn't go straight to hell. Especially when he initiates a tactically brilliant seduction of Joe Pitt (Bill Heck), a newly married and very closeted Mormon who works in Roy Cohn's law office.

Terry Teachout, The Wall Street Journal: Mr. Kushner, in short, has been served well by this high-profile revival, and even those who, like me, have their doubts about "Angels in America" will likely go home feeling that the best possible case has been made for its problematic virtues.

Elisabeth Vincentelli, NY Post: Nearly two decades after it opened on Broadway -- and seven years after the HBO miniseries with Al Pacino and Meryl Streep -- Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" is considered a modern American classic. And it is, no doubt about that. But the work's delirious genius shines through only intermittently in the uneven off-Broadway revival that opened last night.

Linda Winer, Newsday: The Angel has landed again, at long last, and all's right with the world. Amend that. All's deliriously right in a theater world where Tony Kushner's monumental, subversive, altogether remarkable masterwork, "Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes," can be seen - in all its gargantuan seven-hour, two-part, big-brain glory - at the tiny Signature Theatre Company.

Joe Dziemianowicz, NY Daily News: It's rare for a play to inspire so much thought, conversation and tears -- no doubt why tickets are so scarce. "The great work begins" is said by a couple of characters. It's happening now at the Signature.

Robert Feldberg, NorthJersey.com: Ultimately, this production reinforces the notion of "Angels in America" as a triumph of Kushner's creative imagination, his ability to conceive a puzzle with large, complex pieces.

Jeremy Gerard, Bloomberg News: The Signature Theatre production, staged with a sympathetic but uneven hand by Michael Greif, showcases some of the best talent around, including Zoe Kazan, Christian Borle, Billy Porter and Frank Wood in a career-topping performance as the sneering, foul-mouthed, inexhaustibly mendacious Cohn.

To post a comment, you must register and login.