(Michael Feingold’s article appeared in the Village Voice, 11/3.)
By any measure, the revival of Tony Kushner's Angels in America, 17 years after its Broadway premiere, is a big event: big in size—its two parts run a total of six hours and 40 minutes; big in scope, covering every topic from the ozone layer to the hero's T-cell count; and, most of all, big in ambition. Kushner's aim, to create what might be called a metaphysical history of late-20th-century America from a gay perspective, is everywhere visible. Angels covers a lot of ground, and offers a lot to take in. Those who've called it "influential" surely mean some other word, possibly "induplicable." What artist has had the brass balls to try emulating Kushner's giant monolith? Angels is what it is; there's nothing else even remotely like it.
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