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Summary
Summary
The second half of Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning epic steers the characters introduced in Millennium Approaches from the opportunistic 1980s to a new sense of community in the 1990s, as they struggle to overcome catastrophic loss. Scheduled to open on Broadway and at London's Royal National Theatre this fall.
Author Notes
Playwright Tony Kushner was born in New York City and raised in Louisiana.
In addition to his plays, Kushner teaches at New York University and has co-written an opera with Bobby McFerrin.
Kushner is best known for Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, a two-part seven-hour play that has won many awards (two Tony Awards, a Pulitzer Prize, two Drama Desk Awards, the Evening Standard Award, the New York Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award). It was also selected one of the ten best plays of the 20th century by London's Royal National Theatre.
(Bowker Author Biography)
Reviews (2)
Booklist Review
At the end of Millennium Approaches, the Pulitzer Prize-winning first part of Angels in America [BKL S 1 93], an angel crashes in on AIDS sufferer Prior Walter and declares him a prophet, which is pretty expressionistic-surrealistic stuff, not to mention its cliff-hanger value. Perestroika follows on from that moment not only in its action but in its treatment; for rather than teetering between realism and fantasy like part 1, it's wholeheart~edly expressionist. The drama is better for this firmer sense of theatrical style. The archness and pop-cultural knowingness of the gay characters' dialogue is more tolerable, and the play's grand point (which Kushner seemed not to be approaching in Millennium Approaches) is better made in a fantastic context because it is an abstract argument about fate and human values. The gist of it is that God has vanished (but not died), leaving humanity as the only other creative force around, and we just want more life and love, by golly. Kinda thin gruel, but preceded by so many theatrical pyrotechnics that second helpings of many of the awards Millennium Approaches got are entirely to be expected. ~--Ray Olson
Choice Review
If it seems unlikely--given its thicket of accompanying blurbs--that any gay male reviewer could be dispassionate about Tony Kushner's two Angels in America plays, then what about the rest of reviewerkind? Truth to tell, the use of the angel motif in these dramas about living and dying with AIDS is both stunning and beautiful, while the presence of the late and unlamented Roy Cohn is as impressive as it is distracting. The dialogue throughout is deft, off-puttingly light, and slangy; the tone established is one of dark humor, whistling past the graveyard. What the reader must supply is a visual dimension merely adumbrated by the text--though that is hardly any fault of the text. Staged, this play and its predecessor (winners of 1993 and 1994 Tony Awards) prove masterfully arresting and engaging. Current politically correct norms make objectivity about these plays difficult for the moment, but for that moment, these are necessary acquisitions for libraries of every sort. The text has been well printed, introduced, and generally outfitted. Most highly recommended. J. M. Ditsky; University of Windsor