"Angels in America" Still Soars as the Preeminent Gay Play of Our Time

Will there ever be another play like Angels in America? That was the one thought that reverberated through my head as the new production of Tony Kushner’s modern classic, which the playwright describes as a “gay fantasia on national themes,” unfolded before my eyes at the Signature Theater.

A seminal work of theater, Angels has become a mainstay of college productions and community theaters for its heady commentary on politics, religion, and sexuality. The play itself is a dazzling patchwork quilt of characters and plots, ranging from pedestrian relationship turmoils to the interference in mankind’s journey from Heaven itself. The play is, without a doubt, a sprawling, epic masterpiece, but this is a very different version of Angels than I’ve seen in the past.

In a word, it’s smaller.

The little stage in the Peter Norton Space is a surprisingly modest choice for the operatic Angels, a two-part play that thrives not on special effects, really, but more on the idea of special effects. This is a bare-bones operation, to be sure, with the cinematic cuts and flying Angel facilitated onstage by stagehands with no attempt to mask their presence. In the most distracting example, a stagehand hangs out onstage, a bundle of clothes in hand, while Prior Walter (Christian Borle) goes through a quick change to set up a flashback, taking the clothes out of the stagehand’s arms and later putting them back.

Robin Weigert and Christian Borle (photo: Joan Marcus)

When the titular Angel cracks through the ceiling of Prior’s hospital room at the conclusion of Part One, entitled Millennium Approaches, her arrival felt decidedly lackluster, the thick black wires carrying her down one very straight line. This Angel glides, rather than soars.

That having been said, the lack of gorgeous theatrical effects actually helps to enhance the incredible achievement that is Kushner’s script by directing the focus onto what his characters are saying. His dialogue flies fast and furious, and while much of what he writes is very funny, it’s his vast intelligence and unique world view that pours out of every line.

When’s the last time you saw a play in which a groups of angels discuss the inner workings of a radio in precise, scientific detail?

And it’s understandable that director Michael Greif would opt for a more humble version of the show. After all, Angels received the film treatment when it was adapted into a miniseries for HBO in 2003, and the film version boasted some true acting titans, Al Pacino and Meryl Streep among them.

But rather than simply call to mind that version, Greif’s staging goes the opposite direction, putting on full display that Angels is mostly one scene after another in which two people have a conversation. Very rarely is the stage crowded, and in fact it’s only one scene, late in Part Two (which bears the subtitle Perestroika) in which the entire cast congregates on stage.

This economy of drama helps move the story along at a slick pace, one event catapulting into another, leaving the audience little time to catch its breath.

The biggest star in the cast is, of course, Zachary Quinto. I’ll confess that when I first learned Quinto was cast in the show I assumed it would be in the role of the AIDS-patient-cum-prophet Prior, who has perhaps the most to do in the show, and certainly is the character we care for the most as an audience.

Zachary Quinto and Christian Borle (photo: Joan Marcus)

Instead, Quinto plays Louis Ironson, Prior’s weak-willed lover who abandons him upon learning Prior has contracted the deadly virus. Quinto, who has made a name for himself in fantastical, sci-fi fare, here gets to be one of the few characters who never witnesses the supernatural goings-on, and in Louis he creates a fascinating and memorable character, at turns neurotic, ranting, despairing, and seductive.

I usually don’t like the character of Louis, but Quinto made me reverse that stance. With this play he proves he's a phenomenal talent.