A quarter-century after stunning the theater world, one of the greatest theatrical journeys of our time returns to Broadway in an acclaimed new production from the National Theatre. As politically incendiary as any play in the American canon, Angels in America also manages to be, at turns, hilariously irreverent and heartbreakingly humane. It is also astonishingly relevant, speaking every bit as urgently to our anxious times as it did when it first premiered. Tackling Reaganism, McCarthyism, immigration, religion, climate change, and AIDS against the backdrop of New York City in the mid-1980's, no contemporary drama has succeeded so indisputably with so ambitious a scope.
The Angel's introduction is as grand as the come, and that's fitting for such a grand revival of Angels in America. Twenty-five years ago, the play was important and relevant-and in the age of Trump, it might be moreso, on both counts, today. But the reason it persists, the reason companies will stage this work for decades to come, is that it's first and foremost great, riveting drama. And its time has come-again.
'Angels in America' returns to Broadway to help remind us why Tony Kushner was the Lin-Manuel Miranda of the 1990s. It's the second Broadway revival for this 1993 marathon AIDS drama, and Marianne Elliott's staging enthralls by putting the fantasy of Kushner's play front and center. Her much-praised National Theatre production opened Sunday at the Neil Simon Theatre.
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