Review: ANGELS IN AMERICA, PART 1: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES at Actors Theatre Of Little Rock

Due to an unforseen early closure, I was not able to make it to Actors Theatre of Little Rock's production of  Angels in America, Part 1: Millennium Approaches. Thankfully, I have wonderfully talented friends who can step in and give their own perspectives.

*Article written by Ash Campbell*

Angels in America is the kind of play theatre students and artists across the country study as a groundbreaking work of American theatre, never knowing whether they will have the opportunity to bring its story to life. That is especially true in Central Arkansas, where this play had not been produced locally in more than 20 years until Actors Theatre of Little Rock brought it back to the stage for a limited run scheduled for August 6–22.

Angels in America is a two-part play by American playwright Tony Kushner. The two parts are often presented separately, as Actor’s Theatre of Little Rock did with this production. Angels in America is regarded as one of the most significant works of
Modern American Theatre and received many awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Award for Best Play, and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play.

Set in 1985 during the AIDS crisis, Part One: Millennium Approaches explores illness, abandonment, sexuality, religion, politics, and mortality. This is not an easy play to produce or, at times, to watch. While this story takes place in a specific moment in American history, it speaks just as powerfully to today’s audiences as it did 35 years ago.

Ultimately, Angels in America is a play that is supposed to make you think. Is love enough? Can I be who I am without judgment? Is everything I have been taught to believe actually true? Is what I am seeing a dream, a hallucination, or something else entirely? And am I really allowed to laugh during a play this sad?

Directed by Sheridan Posey, this production not only made you ask those questions but left you begging for answers you were never supposed to receive. Through thoughtful blocking that created beautiful pictures onstage, Posey told a story that so many artists dream of having the opportunity to tell. Perhaps even more impressive were the performances she pulled from her actors. There were countless moments throughout Millennium Approaches when anyone watching understood just how much trust must exist between the actors and their production team. That kind of vulnerability requires a director willing to put in the work to create an environment where actors feel safe, and the trust Posey built with this ensemble was evident throughout the production.

A powerful example of this trust can be seen in the relationship between Louis and Prior, played by Taylor Fulgham and Quinn Gasaway. Their portrayals of two complicated characters navigating life-changing circumstances were real and vulnerable. Even more impressive, Fulgham, originally serving as the production’s Assistant Director and Dramaturg, stepped into the role of Louis at the last minute following a cast illness. Taking on one of the play’s most complicated roles, Fulgham delivered a performance that never suggested he was a last-minute addition.

Fulgham was beautifully matched by Gasaway, whose portrayal of Prior brought me and many others in the audience to tears several times throughout the performance. Gasaway bounced between Prior’s humor and the heartbreak of a man whose life changed the moment he revealed his AIDS diagnosis in his opening scene. Louis and Prior are only one half of the complicated relationships in Millennium Approaches. Joe and Harper Pitt, played by Drew Posey and Shea Barham, were fighting to hold together a marriage that was never stable to begin with. Joe, a devout Mormon, struggled with the realization that, no matter how hard he prayed or tried to change, his sexuality would not simply disappear. Harper, meanwhile, retreated further into pills and hallucinations as she struggled with the fact that something in her marriage was deeply wrong. Posey and Barham captured two people trying to hold onto the lives they thought they were supposed to have. Both actors gave beautiful portrayals of two complicated characters, leaving audiences torn between sympathy, sadness, and compassion for them both.

While Millennium Approaches required nearly every actor to portray more than one character, some of the most impressive examples of this came from Paige Carpenter and Hope Hargrove. Carpenter tackled the roles of the Angel, Sister Ella Chapter, the Nurse, and the Homeless Woman, while Hargrove brought four equally distinct characters to life as Hannah Pitt, the Rabbi, Henry, and Ethel Rosenberg. Both actors approached each role with a level of dedication that was evident every time they
stepped onstage. It would be easy for individual characters to get lost when an actor is asked to move between roles, but Carpenter and Hargrove never allowed that to happen. Through distinct accents, physicality, body language, and mannerisms, they created characters who felt fully realized rather than just a costume change. Their scenes together also provided some comic relief, giving the audience permission to laugh during such a heavy story.

Perhaps no two characters in Millennium Approaches are more different from one another than Roy Cohn and Belize, played by Ben Barham and Tylen Loring. Roy is powerful, manipulative, closeted, and determined to deny his AIDS diagnosis, while Belize is a Black gay ex-drag queen nurse and one of Prior’s closest friends. Loring also brought to life Mr. Lies, who frequently accompanies Harper through her hallucinations. Barham did exactly what he was supposed to do: he made you hate Roy Cohn. As one of the few characters in the play based on a real person, Roy is not an easy character to play and Barham never shied away from the ugliness he was portraying. His Roy was cruel and desperate to maintain power. By the end, I found myself wondering whether  Roy Cohn had any redeeming qualities at all and how someone as genuinely kind as Barham managed to make me dislike him so much.

Loring brought a totally different energy to the stage. As Belize, he was sassy, sincere, and supportive. The look on Belize’s face when he undid Prior’s nightgown to see his lesions for the first time was a small moment that has stayed with me. Through Belize, Loring brought another important perspective to the play, adding questions of race to an already complicated exploration of identity in the 1980s.

The main cast of this production was filled with some heavy hitters, but the standby cast was equally impressive. I was lucky enough to see both casts during the run, and I am incredibly glad I did. Each standby brought a different perspective to their characters and did not simply recreate the performances of the other actors in the role. These were not copy-and-paste performances. Each actor created a fully developed character that was their own and it was a joy to watch. John Broadwater’s Prior brought tears to my eyes as he proclaimed, “I can handle pressure. I am a gay man, and I am used to pressure…” The moment Broadwater created will stay with me for a very long time. Dani Carney and Chris Flowers, as Harper and Joe, were equally committed to making these characters their own, creating moments together that felt genuine and complicated. Duane Jackson tackled the role of Roy Cohn and created a particularly interesting dynamic with Flowers’ Joe. Their scenes demonstrated the manipulative love between the two men, as Roy seemed to care for Joe while also attempting to mold him into a version of himself. Mackenzie Burks had the opportunity to take on the roles of the Angel, Sister Ella Chapter, the Nurse, and the Homeless Woman. Like Carpenter, Burks gave a masterclass on versatility by fully committing to all four characters while bringing her own choices to each.

Of course, a strong production relies on an entire technical team working behind the scenes to bring the play to life, and the technical elements of Angels in America were fantastic. I especially enjoyed the lighting and sound design by Justin A. Pike (lighting) and Steven Jones (sound). Having attended many productions at Actor’s Theatre of Little Rock, the technical approach to this show felt unique from other productions I have seen in the space. One of the most memorable elements was the synchronization of the Angel’s voice with flashes of light, which was a fantastic effect. The sound design was equally impressive as the Angel’s voice seemed to bounce around the room rather than come from one specific location, making the audience feel her presence all around you. The set, designed by Drew Posey, was smart and beautiful. It allowed the play to
move between locations without distracting from the story. The set was designed as a liminal space, rather than representing one specific location, which worked well for a play that moves so often between different places and realities.

Perhaps the most heartbreaking part of this production is that it ended before it was supposed to. The final week of performances was canceled due to an air-conditioning issue. The cast and crew had no idea when they took their final bows on August 15th that those would be their final bows. The early closing also meant that Dakota Mansfield, the original cast member playing Louis, never had the opportunity to perform the role and finish the run as planned. Anyone who has been part of a theatrical production knows how much work goes into bringing a show to the stage. To have that time cut short is heartbreaking, especially for a production as ambitious as Angels in America. While audiences did not get the full run that was planned, the work of this cast and crew deserves to be recognized for bringing such an important story back to Central Arkansas.

Actor’s Theatre of Little Rock’s production of Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches may not have ended the way the cast and crew envisioned, but the work they created deserves to be remembered. While the production may have ended early, its impact on those who saw it will on for a very long time.

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