Angels in America
Written by	Tony Kushner
Characters	Prior Walter Roy Cohn Joe Pitt Harper Pitt Hannah Pitt Louis Ironson Belize Ethel Rosenberg Homeless Woman Angel
Date premiered	May 1991
Place premiered	Eureka Theatre Company San Francisco, California
Original language	English
Genre	Drama
Setting	New York City, Salt Lake City, and elsewhere, 1985–1986

Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is a 1991 two-part play by American playwrightTony Kushner. The two parts of the play,Millennium Approaches andPerestroika, may be presented separately. The work won numerous awards, including thePulitzer Prize for Drama, theTony Award for Best Play, and theDrama Desk Award for Outstanding Play. Part one of the play premiered in 1991, followed by part two in 1992.^[1][2] The play premiered in London'sNational Theatre in 1992 while itsBroadway opening was in 1993.^[1]

The play is a complex, often metaphorical, and at times symbolic examination ofAIDS and homosexuality in the United States in the 1980s. Certain major and minor characters are supernatural beings (angels) or deceased persons (ghosts). The play containsmultiple roles for several actors. Initially and primarily focusing on one gay and one straight couple in Manhattan, the plot has several additional storylines, some of which intersect occasionally.

In 1994, playwright and professor of theater studies John M. Clum called the play "a turning point in the history of gay drama, the history ofAmerican drama, and ofAmerican literary culture".^[3] It is widely described as one of the greatestplays of the 20th century and of all time.^[a]

In 2003,HBO adapted the play into a six-episodeminiseries of the same title. In 2006,The Record, listed the miniseries among the 12 best filmed portrayals of AIDS to date.^[15]

In 2017,Angels in America received a much-acclaimed National Theatre revival that won theLaurence Olivier Award for Best Revival. Later that year, the production transferred to Broadway, where it won threeTony Awards, includingBest Revival of a Play.

Set inNew York City, the play takes place between October 1985 and February 1986.^[16] The play begins at a funeral, where an elderlyrabbi eulogizes the deceased woman's entire generation of immigrants who risked their lives to build a community in the United States. Soon after, the deceased's grandson, Louis Ironson, learns that his lover Prior Walter, the last member of anold stock American family, hasAIDS. As Prior's illness progresses, Louis becomes unable to cope, and he abandons Prior during a health episode that lands him in the hospital. Prior is given emotional support by their friend Belize, a hospital nurse and ex-drag queen, who separately also deals with Louis's self-castigating guilt and myriad excuses for leaving Prior.

Joe Pitt, aMormonRepublican clerk in the same judge's office where Louis holds a word-processing job, is offered a position inWashington, D.C. by his mentor, theMcCarthyist lawyer and power brokerRoy Cohn. Joe hesitates to accept due to hisagoraphobic,Valium-addicted wife Harper, who refuses to relocate. Feeling adrift and undesired by Joe, Harper retreats into drug-fueled escapist fantasies, including a dream where she crosses paths with Prior even though the two of them have never met in the real world. She confronts Joe about his deeply-closeted homosexuality, which he views as a sin. Torn by pressure from Roy and a burgeoning infatuation with Louis, Joe drunkenly comes out to his conservative mother Hannah, who reacts by changing the subject and hanging up the phone. Concerned for her son, she sells her house inSalt Lake City and travels to New York. After Joe confesses his homosexuality to a drug-addled Harper and leaves her, she flees their apartment and wanders the streets of Brooklyn, believing she is in Antarctica. Joe sets out to look for her, but follows Louis to Central Park, where they tentatively begin an affair.

Meanwhile, Roy Cohn discovers that he has advanced AIDS and is dying. Defiantly refusing to publicly admit he is gay or has AIDS, Roy instead declares he has liver cancer. Facingdisbarment for misappropriating money from a client, Roy is determined to beat the case so he can die a lawyer in good standing, and he attempts to position Joe in theDepartment of Justice to ensure the case is quashed. When Harper disappears and Joe refuses his offer, Roy flies into a rage and collapses in pain. As he awaits transport to the hospital, he is haunted by the ghost ofEthel Rosenberg, whom he prosecuted in her trial for espionage, and who was executed after Roy illegally lobbied the judge for the death penalty.

Prior begins to experience intense dreams and visions as his health worsens. He hears the voice of an angel telling him to prepare for her arrival, a flaming book erupts from the floor during a medical check-up, and he receives visits from the ghosts of two ancestral Prior Walters, informing him that he is adivine prophet. Prior does not know if these visitations are hallucinations caused by an emotional breakdown or if they are real. At the end of Part One, a glorious winged Angel crashes through Prior's bedroom ceiling, addresses him as "Prophet", and proclaims that "the Great Work" has begun.

The play begins with a speech given by the world's oldest livingBolshevik, Aleksii Antedilluvianovich Prelapsarianov, addressing a crowd inMoscow in December 1985. He condemns the reforms proposed byMikhail Gorbachev, decrying the notion of progress without political theory, and declaring that the only way forward is to not move.

At the funeral of a friend, a shaken Prior relates his encounter with the Angel to Belize. After revealing the presence of a mystical book underneath the tile in Prior's kitchen, the Angel reveals to him that Heaven is a beautiful city that resemblesSan Francisco, and God, described as a great flamingAleph, created the universe through copulation with His angels, who are all-knowing but unable to create or change on their own. God, bored with the angels, made mankind with the power to change and create. The progress of mankind on Earth caused Heaven to suffer earthquake-like tremors and physically deteriorate. Finally, on the day of theSan Francisco earthquake in 1906, God abandoned Heaven. The Angel brings Prior a message for mankind—"stop moving!"—in the belief that if man ceases to progress, Heaven will be restored. Since the night of his vision, his health has once again started to decline. Belize believes that Prior isprojecting his own fears of abandonment and death into an elaborate hallucination, but Prior suspects that his illness is the prophecy taking physical form, and that the only way the Angel can force him to deliver her message is for him to die.

Roy lands at the hospital in the care of Belize, where his condition rapidly declines. He manages to use his political clout to acquire a private stash of the experimental drugAZT, at the expense of withholding the drug from participants in adrug trial. Alone in the hospital and fighting disbarment, Roy finds himself increasingly isolated, with only Belize, who despises him, and the ghost of Ethel for company.

Prior goes to a Mormon visitors center to research angels, where he meets Hannah, who is volunteering there and taking care of Harper, who has slowly returned to reality but is now deeply depressed. Harper and Prior share a spark of recognition from their earlier shared dream, and witness a vision of Joe and Louis together. Louis is aghast to learn that Joe is a practicing Mormon and, regretting his actions and resistant to the intensity of Joe's infatuation, begins to withdraw from Joe. He begs Prior's forgiveness, which Prior angrily refuses, and Prior, who knows about Louis' affair with Joe from his vision, becomes deeply hurt that Louis is attempting to move on.

Joe visits Roy, who is near death, and receives a final, paternal blessing from his mentor. However, when Joe confesses he has left Harper for a man, Roy rejects him in a violent reaction of fear and rage, ordering him to return to his wife and cover up his indiscretion. Joe returns to Harper and they have an unsatisfying sexual encounter, which prompts Harper to realize their marriage is over.

Prior, accompanied by Belize, jealously confronts a confused Joe at work, but the encounter descends into chaos when Belize recognizes Joe as Roy's protegé. Belize informs Louis about Joe's connection with Roy, whom Louis despises. Louis, as a result, researches Joe's legal history and confronts him over a series of hypocritical and homophobic decisions Joe himself wrote. The confrontation turns violent, and Joe punches Louis in the face, ending their affair.

Ethel Rosenberg watches Roy suffer and decline before delivering the final blow as he lies dying: He has been disbarred after all. Delirious, Roy seems to mistake Ethel for his mother, begging her to comfort him, and Ethel sings aYiddish lullaby as Roy appears to pass away. However, with a sudden burst of energy, he reveals that he has tricked her, viciously declaring that he has "finally [made] Ethel Rosenberg sing". He then suffers astroke and dies. After Roy's death, Belize forces Louis to visit Roy's hospital room, where they steal his stash of AZT for Prior. Belize asks Louis to recite theKaddish for Roy. Unseen by the living, Ethel guides Louis through the prayer, symbolically forgiving Roy before she departs for the hereafter.

After his confrontation with Joe, Prior begins following him obsessively, neglecting his health. He collapses from pneumonia after following Joe to the Mormon center and Hannah rushes him back to the hospital. Prior tells her about his vision and is surprised when Hannah accepts this, based on her belief inangelic revelations within Latter-day Saint theology. At the hospital, the Angel reappears, enraged that Prior has rejected her message. Prior, on Hannah's advice,wrestles the Angel, who relents and opensa ladder into Heaven. Prior climbs into Heaven and tells the council of Angels that he refuses to deliver their message, as without progress, humanity will perish, and begs them for more Life, no matter how horrible the prospect might be. He returns to his hospital bed, where he awakens from his vision with his fever broken and his health beginning to recover. He makes amends with Louis, but refuses to take him back. Meanwhile, Harper departs New York for San Francisco, leaving Joe alone.

The play concludes in 1990, five years later. Prior and Louis are still separated, but Louis, along with Belize, remain close in order to support and care for Prior, and Hannah has found new perspective on her rigid beliefs, forging a friendship with the three gay men. Prior, Louis, Belize, and Hannah gather before the angel statue inBethesda Fountain, discussingthe fall of the Soviet Union and what the future holds. Prior talks ofthe legend of the Pool of Bethesda, where the sick were healed. Prior delivers the play's final lines directly to the audience, blessing them and affirming his intentions to live on and telling them that "the Great Work" shall continue.

The play is written for eight actors, each of whom playstwo or more roles. Kushner's doubling, as indicated in the published script, requires several of the actors to play different genders.

• Prior Walter – A gay man withAIDS. Throughout the play, he experiences various heavenly visions. When the play begins, he is dating Louis Ironson. His best friend is Belize.
• Louis Ironson – Prior's boyfriend. Unable to deal with Prior's disease, he ultimately abandons him. He meets Joe Pitt and later begins a relationship with him.
• Harper Pitt – Anagoraphobic Mormon housewife with incessantValium-induced hallucinations. After a revelation from Prior (whom she meets when his heavenly vision and her hallucination cross paths), she discovers that her husband, Joe, is gay and struggles with it, considering it a betrayal of her marriage.
• Joe Pitt – Harper's husband and a deeply closeted gay Mormon, clerk at theU.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, and friend ofRoy Cohn. Joe eventually abandons his wife for a relationship with Louis. Throughout the play, he struggles with hissexual identity.
• Roy Cohn – A closeted gay lawyer, based on real lifeRoy Cohn. Just as in history, it is eventually revealed that he has contracted HIV and the disease has progressed to AIDS, which he insists is liver cancer to preserve his reputation.
• Hannah Pitt – Joe's mother. She moves to New York after her son drunkenlycomes out to her on the phone. She arrives to find that Joe has abandoned his wife.
• Belize – A nurse and formerdrag queen, he is Prior's ex-boyfriend and best friend. He later becomes Roy Cohn's nurse.
• The Angel/Voice – A messenger from Heaven who visits Prior and tells him he is a prophet.

• Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz – An elderlyorthodoxRabbi. He performs the funeral service for Louis' grandmother in Act one ofMillennium Approaches and gives him advice on his situation with Prior.Played by the actor playing Hannah.
• Mr. Lies – One of Harper's imaginary friends. A smooth talking agent for the International Order of Travel Agents.Played by the actor playing Belize.
• Emily – Prior's hospital nurse, a no-nonsense Italian-American.Played by the actor playing the Angel.
• Henry – Roy Cohn's doctor, who diagnoses him with AIDS.Played by the actor playing Hannah.
• Martin Heller – A publicity agent to the Reagan Administration's Justice Department and Roy'stoady.Played by the actor playing Harper.
• Ethel Rosenberg – The ghost of a woman executed for being aCommunist spy. She haunts Roy, whom she blames for her conviction and execution, as he dies.Played by the actor playing Hannah.
• Prior 1 and Prior 2 – The ghosts of two of Prior Walter's ancestors. Prior 1 is a gloomy Yorkshire farmer from the 13th century, Prior 2 is a cheerful 17th-century British aristocrat. They appear to Prior to herald the Angel's arrival.Played by the actors playing Joe and Roy, respectively.
• The Man in the Park – A gay man Louis encounters whilecruising for sex inCentral Park.Played by the actor playing Prior.
• Sister Ella Chapter – Hannah's realtor friend who helps her sell her house.Played by the actor playing the Angel.
• A Homeless Woman – A crazed homeless woman Hannah encounters when she arrives in Brooklyn.Played by the actor playing the Angel.
• The Eskimo – An imaginary friend in Harper's Antarctic hallucination.Played by the actor playing Joe.
• Aleksii Antedilluvianovich Prelapsarianov – "The World's Oldest LivingBolshevik", whose speech in the opening ofPerestroika sets up the theme of whether the world should continue to move forward.Played by the actor playing Hannah.
• Mormon Family – A mannequin family in the Diorama Room of the Mormon Visitors' Center where Hannah and Harper volunteer. The father resembles Joe, and later becomes him in Harper's delusions.He is played by the actor playing Joe. The mother comes to life in Harper's imagination and speaks to her.She is played by the actor playing the Angel. The two sons, Caleb and Orrin, are voiced offstage by the actors playing Belize and the Angel respectively.
• The Continental Principalities – The Angel Council Prior confronts in Heaven. They are in charge of both Heaven and Earth after God's desertion. They are the Angels Europa (played by the actor playing Joe), Africanii(played by the actor playing Harper), Oceania (played by the actor playing Belize), Asiatica (played by the actor playing Hannah), Australia (played by the actor playing Louis), and Antarctica (played by the actor playing Roy).

Angels in America was commissioned by theEureka Theatre Company in San Francisco, by co-artistic directorsOskar Eustis andTony Taccone.^[17] It was first performed in Los Angeles as a workshop in May 1990 by the Center Theatre Group at theMark Taper Forum.

Millennium Approaches premiered in May 1991 in a production performed by theEureka Theatre Company of San Francisco, directed byDavid Esbjornson.^[18] InLondon it premiered in aNational Theatre production at theCottesloe Theatre, directed byDeclan Donnellan.^[19]Henry Goodman played Cohn,Nick Reding played Joe,Felicity Montagu played Harper,Marcus D'Amico played Louis, andSean Chapman played Prior.^[19] Opening on January 23, 1992, the London production ran for a year. In November 1992 it visited Düsseldorf as part of the firstUnion des Théâtres de l'Europe festival.^[20]

The play's second part,Perestroika, was still being developed asMillennium Approaches was being performed. It was performed several times as staged readings by both the Eureka Theatre (during the world premiere of part one in 1991), and the Mark Taper Forum (in May 1992). It premiered in November 1992 in a production by the Mark Taper Forum, directed byOskar Eustis andTony Taccone. In November 1993 it received its London debut at the National Theatre on the Cottesloe stage, in repertory with a revival ofMillennium Approaches, again directed byDeclan Donnellan.^[20]David Schofield played Cohn,Daniel Craig played Joe,Clare Holman played Harper,Jason Isaacs played Louis,Joseph Mydell played Belize and won theOlivier Award for Best Supporting Actor, andStephen Dillane played Prior.^[20]

The entire two-part play debuted onBroadway at theWalter Kerr Theatre in 1993, directed byGeorge C. Wolfe, withMillennium Approaches performed on May 4 andPerestroika joining it in repertory on November 23, closing December 4, 1994. The original cast includedRon Leibman,Stephen Spinella,Kathleen Chalfant,Marcia Gay Harden,Jeffrey Wright,Ellen McLaughlin,David Marshall Grant andJoe Mantello. Among the replacements during the run wereF. Murray Abraham (for Ron Leibman),Cherry Jones (for Ellen McLaughlin),Dan Futterman (for Joe Mantello),Cynthia Nixon (for Marcia Gay Harden) andJay Goede (for David Marshall Grant).Millennium Approaches andPerestroika were awarded, in 1993 and 1994 respectively, both theTony Awards forBest Play andDrama Desk Awards for Outstanding Play.

The published script indicates that Kushner made a few revisions toPerestroika in the following year. These changes officially completed the work in 1995.^[21] In 1994, the first national tour launched at the Royal George Theater in Chicago, directed byMichael Mayer, with the following cast: Peter Birkenhead as Louis Ironson, Reginald Flowers as Belize,Kate Goehring as Harper Pitt,Jonathan Hadary as Roy Cohn, Philip E. Johnson as Joe Pitt,Barbara E. Robertson as Hannah Pitt, Robert Sella as Prior, and Carolyn Swift as the Angel.^[22]

The Australian premiere ofMillennium Approaches was produced byMelbourne Theatre Company atRussell Street Theatre on 15 October 1993, running till 20 November 1993.^[23] The Australian premier of the entire two-part play was also produced byMelbourne Theatre Company, presented at thePlayhouse, Melbourne, on 30 August 1994, running through till 25 September 1994. .^[24]

A Toronto production of both plays, directed byBob Baker, opened at CanStage'sBerkley Theatre in November 1996 and ran for 8 months. The cast included Steve Cumyn (Prior), Alex Poch-Goldin (Louis), Tom Wood (Roy Cohn),Patricia Hamilton (Hannah, Ethel Rosenberg and others), David Storch (Joe),Karen Hines (Harper), Cassel Miles (Belize, Mr. Lies and others) and Linda Prystawska (Angel and othes).

Kushner made relatively minor revisions toMillennium Approaches and additional, more substantial revisions toPerestroika during a run at theSignature Theatre in 2010, which were published in a 2013 complete edition. That production was directed byMichael Greif and featuredChristian Borle as Prior,Zachary Quinto as Louis,Billy Porter as Belize,Bill Heck as Joe,Zoe Kazan as Harper,Robin Bartlett as Hannah,Frank Wood as Roy, andRobin Weigert as the angel.^[25]

In 2013, a production of the two-part play was produced by Sydney-based theatre company,Belvoir. The cast featured Luke Mullins as Prior Walter,Mitchell Butel as Louis Ironson,^[26]Marcus Graham as Roy Cohn,Ashley Zukerman as Joe Pitt, Amber McMahon as Harper Pitt,Robyn Nevin as Hannah Pitt,DeObia Oparei as Belize, andPaula Arundell as The Angel.^[27] The show ran from June 1 to July 14 at theBelvoir St Theatre, before transferring to theTheatre Royal for the remainder of its run. The production finished its season on July 27.^[28][29]

A second Toronto production bySoulpepper Theatre Company in 2013 and 2014 starredDamien Atkins as Prior Walter,Gregory Prest as Louis, Mike Ross as Joe,Diego Matamoros as Roy andNancy Palk as Hannah, Ethel Rosenberg and the rabbi.^[30]

Millennium Approaches made itsEdinburgh Fringe Festival debut, in a production by St Andrews-based Mermaids Theatre, in August 2013 to critical acclaim.

Asia premiered the play in its entirety in 1995 by the New Voice Company in the Philippines.^[31] This was followed by another production in November 2014 at the Singapore Airlines Theatre.^[32]

An Italian adaptation of the play premiered inModena in 2007, in a production directed byFerdinando Bruni and Elio De Capitani^[33] which was awarded several national awards.^[34] The same production ran for three days in Madrid in 2012.

In the fall of 2016, the Round House Theatre and Olney Theatre Center in Montgomery County, Maryland, collaborated to present a 25th anniversary production of the play, offering Parts I and II in repertory.^[35]The Washington Post's theater critic called it an "epically engrossing, acidly funny masterwork."^[36]

In April 2017, a new production began previews at theRoyal National Theatre in theLyttelton Theatre. Directed byMarianne Elliott, the cast includedAndrew Garfield asPrior Walter withRussell Tovey as Joe,Denise Gough as Harper,James McArdle as Louis Ironson,Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as Belize andNathan Lane asRoy Cohn.^[37] InApril 2018, the production was nominated for sixOlivier Awards, winning forBest Revival andBest Actress in a Supporting Role in a Play for Gough.^[38] The production was filmed and broadcast to cinemas around the world as part of theNational Theatre Live initiative, and later released in 2021 on the company'sNT at Home streaming service.^[39]

In August 2017, a new production ofMillennium Approaches was brought to San Juan,Puerto Rico, by Teatro Público Inc. Directed by Benjamín Cardona, the cast featured Carlos Miranda asRoy Cohn, Jacqueline Duprey as Hannah, Gabriela Saker as Harper, and Liván Albelo as Prior. The production received critical praise and launched the new theater company.^[40]

In September 2017, a revival of the two plays were staged inMelbourne atfortyfivedownstairs for nearly a four-week run. The cast included veteran actorHelen Morse as Hannah Pitt, and Margaret Mills (who had appeared in the original Australian premiere of the play in 1994) as The Angel.^[41][42]

In February 2018, the 2017Royal National Theatre production transferred toBroadway for an 18-week period at theNeil Simon Theatre. The majority of the London cast returned, withLee Pace replacing Tovey as Joe, andBeth Malone playing the Angel at certain performances.^[43][44] Previews began on February 23, 2018, with opening night on March 25.^[45][43] The production won forBest Revival of a Play at that year'sTony Awards, with Garfield and Lane winning forBest Actor in a Play andBest Featured Actor in a Play respectively for their reprisal of their National Theatre performances, while Denise Gough and Susan Brown were nominated forBest Featured Actress in a Play. The production was recorded as an audiobook byRandom House Audio, with Malone as the Angel andBobby Canavale andEdie Falco narrating.^[46]

A critically acclaimed production opened atBerkeley Repertory Theatre^[47] in April 2018, directed by original commissionerTony Taccone and featuringRandy Harrison as Prior,Stephen Spinella (who originated Prior Walter on Broadway) as Roy Cohn, Carmen Roman as Hannah, Benjamin T. Ismail as Louis, Danny Binstock as Joe, Bethany Jillard as Harper, Francisca Faridany and Lisa Ramirez alternating as the Angel, and Caldwell Tidicue, better known asBob the Drag Queen, making his stage debut as Belize.

In the spring of 2023, Washington, D.C.'s Arena Stage presented Part 1,Millennium Approaches, starkly staged by Hungarian director Janos Szasz.^[48]The Washington Post's critic noted "Angels in America is back in freshly provocative, exhilarating form," particularly "the collision of seven disparate figures...who interconnect over matters political, medical, romantic — and most malignantly, through the machinations of one of them, lawyer Roy Cohn, played by Edward Gero to the toxic T."^[49]The South Australian revival ofMillennium Approaches &Perestroika directed by Hayley Horton as performed at the Adelaide Little Theatre by the Adelaide Theatre Guild from 2 May 2024 - 25 May 2024. The production starred Kate Anolak as Hannah, Lee Cook as Louis, Rachel Dalton as The Angel, Brant Eustice as Roy, Matt Houston as Prior, Casmira Lorien as Harper, Eric McDowell and Belize and Lindsay Prodea as Joe with original music by Phil Short.

In October 2024, a production of the play opened atFinnish National Theatre where it had also run three decades earlier in 1994. The new production was adapted to a single four-hour play by Linda Wallgren who also directed it.^[50]

In April 2025, theInternational Theatre Amsterdam ensemble performed a new production of the play, remaking the 2008 version directed by ITA directorIvo van Hove. Kushner expressed his admiration for the 2008 production, called it the best iteration of the play he had seen so far.

Kushner prefers that the theatricality be transparent. In his notes about staging, he writes: "The plays benefit from a pared-down style of presentation, with scenery kept to an evocative and informative minimum. [...] I recommend rapid scene shifts (no blackouts!), employing the cast as well as stagehands in shifting the scene. This must be an actor-driven event. [...] The moments of magic [...] are to be fully imagined and realized, as wonderfultheatrical illusions—which means it's OK if the wires show, and maybe it's good that they do..."^[51] Kushner is an admirer ofBertolt Brecht, who practiced a style of theatrical production whereby audiences were often reminded that they were in a theatre. The choice to have "no blackouts" allows audiences to participate in the construction of a malleable theatrical world.^[52]

One of the many theatrical devices inAngels is that each of the eight main actors has one or several other minor roles in the play. For example, the actor playing the nurse, Emily, also plays the Angel, Sister Ella Chapter (a real estate agent), and a homeless woman. Thisdoubling and tripling of roles encourages the audience to consider the elasticity of, for example, gender and sexual identities.^[53]

In 2003,HBO Films created aminiseries adaptation of the play. Kushner adapted his original text for the screen, andMike Nichols directed.HBO broadcast the film in various formats: three-hour segments that correspond toMillennium Approaches andPerestroika, as well as one-hour "chapters" that roughly correspond to an act or two of each of these plays. The first three chapters were initially broadcast on December 7, to international acclaim, with the final three chapters following.Angels in America was the most watched made-for-cable film in 2003 and won both theGolden Globe andEmmy for Best Limited Series.

Kushner made certain changes to his play (especially Part Two,Perestroika) for it to work on screen, but the HBO adaptation is generally a faithful representation of Kushner's original work. Kushner has been quoted as saying that he knew Nichols was the right person to direct the film when, at their first meeting, Nichols immediately said that he wanted actors to playmultiple roles, as had been done in stage productions.

The main cast consists ofAl Pacino,Meryl Streep,Emma Thompson,Jeffrey Wright (reprising his Tony-winning Broadway role),Justin Kirk,Ben Shenkman,Patrick Wilson, andMary-Louise Parker.

Angels in America – The Opera made its world premiere at theThéâtre du Châtelet in Paris, France, on November 23, 2004. The opera was based on both parts of theAngels in America fantasia, however the script was re-worked and condensed to fit both parts into a two and half hour show.ComposerPeter Eötvös explains: "In the opera version, I put less emphasis on the political line than Kushner...I rather focus on the passionate relationships, on the highly dramatic suspense of the wonderful text, on the permanently uncertain state of the visions." A German version of the opera followed suit in mid-2005. The opera made its US debut in June 2006 at theStanford Calderwood Pavilion in Boston, Massachusetts.

The text of Prior Walter's monologue from Act 5, Scene 5 ofPerestroika was set to music byMichael Shaieb for a 2009 festival celebrating Kushner's work at theGuthrie Theater. The work was commissioned by theTwin Cities Gay Men's Chorus, which had commissioned Shaieb'sThrough A Glass, Darkly in 2008. The work premiered at the Guthrie in April 2009.^[54][55]

Angels in America received numerous awards, including the1993 and1994Tony Awards for Best Play. The play's first part,Millennium Approaches, received the1993Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

The play garnered much praise upon its release for its dialogue and exploration of social issues. "Mr. Kushner has written the most thrillingAmerican play in years," wroteThe New York Times.^[56] It is the final work criticHarold Bloom listed in hisWestern Canon list.^[57]

A decade after the play's premiere,Metro Weekly labeled it "one of the most important pieces of theater to come out of the late 20th century."^[58]

By contrast, in an essay titled "Angles in America", the cultural criticLee Siegel wrote inThe New Republic, "Angels in America is a second-rate play written by a second-rate playwright who happens to be gay, and because he has written a play about being gay, and about AIDS, no one—and I mean no one—is going to callAngels in America the overwrought, coarse, posturing, formulaic mess that it is."^[59] In his 1995 bookHomos, literary critic and queer theoristLeo Bersani calledAngels in America a "muddled and pretentious play", "[whose] enormous success [...] is a sign, if we need still another one, of how ready and anxious America is to see and hear about gays—provided we reassure America how familiar, how morally sincere, and, particularly in the case of Kushner's work, how innocuously full of significance we can be."^[60]

In response to the frank treatment of homosexuality and AIDS, and brief male nudity, the play quickly became subject to controversial reaction from conservative and religious groups, sometimes labelled as being part of the "culture war".^[61] In Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1996, there were protests held outside a production of the play by the Charlotte Repertory Theatre at theNorth Carolina Blumenthal Performing Arts Center.^[62][63] This led to funding cuts for the Arts & Science Council of Charlotte, the city's arts funding agency, in the following year.^[64][65] A 1999 production atKilgore College, a community college inKilgore, Texas, sparked protests from area and nationalhomophobic groups and led to the town's mayor and commissioners pulling funds for theTexas Shakespeare Festival, which the production's director also ran. Kushner wrote a letter of support to the cast and crew, and the production did go forward.^[66][67]

• Art of the AIDS Crisis
• The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels in America – an oral history of the play

Wikimedia Commons has media related toAngels in America: Millennium Approaches.

• ​Angels in America: Millennium Approaches​ at theInternet Broadway Database
• ​Angels in America: Perestroika​ at theInternet Broadway Database
• Angels in America atIMDb 

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