Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes is a 1991 American two-part play by American playwright Tony Kushner. The two parts of the play, Millennium Approaches and Perestroika, may be presented separately. The work won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Award for Best Play, and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play. Part one of the play premiered in 1991, followed by part two in 1992.[1] Its Broadway opening was in 1993.[1]
The play is a complex, often metaphorical, and at times symbolic examination of AIDS and homosexuality in the United States in the 1980s. Certain major and minor characters are supernatural beings (angels) or deceased persons (ghosts). The play contains multiple 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 of American drama, and of American literary culture".[2]
In 2003, HBO adapted Angels in America into a six-episode miniseries of the same title. In the Sunday, June 25, 2006, edition of The Record, in an article headlined “An AIDS anniversary: 25 years in the arts”, Bill Ervolino listed the miniseries among the 12 best filmed portrayals of AIDS to date.[3]
In 2017, the play received a much-acclaimed West End revival that won the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Revival in 2018. Later that year the production transferred to Broadway, where it received eleven Tony Award nominations, the most ever received by a play at the time. It won three awards: Best Revival of a Play; Best Actor in a Leading Role in a Play, for Andrew Garfield; and Best Actor in a Featured Role in a Play, for Nathan Lane.
