The play is written for eight actors, each of whom plays two or more roles. Kushner's doubling, as indicated in the published script, requires several of the actors to play different genders.
Main characters
- Prior Walter – A gay man with AIDS. 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 – An agoraphobic Mormon housewife with incessant Valium-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 the U.S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit, and friend of Roy Cohn. Joe eventually abandons his wife for a relationship with Louis. Throughout the play, he struggles with his sexual identity.
- Roy Cohn – A closeted gay lawyer, based on real life Roy 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 drunkenly comes out to her on the phone. She arrives to find that Joe has abandoned his wife.
- Belize – A nurse and former drag 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.
Minor characters
- Rabbi Isidor Chemelwitz – An elderly orthodox Rabbi. He performs the funeral service for Louis' grandmother in Act one of Millennium 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's toady. Played by the actor playing Harper.
- Ethel Rosenberg – The ghost of a woman executed for being a Communist 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 while cruising for sex in Central 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 Living Bolshevik", whose speech in the opening of Perestroika 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).
