by Tony Kushner
Millennium Approaches has benefited from the dramaturgical work of Roberta Levitow, Philip Kan Gotanda, Leon Katz and Ellen McLaughlin; K. C. Davis contributed dramaturgy, dedication and Radical Queerness.
Bill Anderson, Andy Holland, Ian Kramer, Peter Minthorn, Sam Sommer and John Ryan (of blessed memory) are everywhere in this play.
David Esbjornson helped shape the final version of Millennium and brought it, fabulously, to San Francisco.
Tony Taccone brought craft, clarity and menschlichkeit to Los Angeles.
For Perestroika
From the first edition, published in 1994:
Abundant emotional support was provided by my aunt, Martha Deutscher. Dot and Jerry Edelstien, and Marcia, Tony and Alex Cunha made homes away from home for me. My assistant, Michael Petshaft, helped keep me sane.
Jim Nicola of New York Theatre Workshop has encouraged and advised me all the way, and so has Rosemarie Tichler of the New York Shakespeare Festival. Together they shed blood for the play, literally; they have won my purple heart.
Gordon Davidson has been the most open-hearted and-handed producer/shepherd any playwright could ever want, and the whole staff of the Taper has been sensational, fabulous, divine.
The National Theatre staff has also been immensely supportive, and I’m particularly grateful to Richard Eyre and Giles Croft for believing in the play even in its scruffiest stages.
I am also indebted to Rocco Landesman, Jack Viertel, Paul Libin, Margo Lion, Susan Gallin, Herb Alpert, Fred Zollo and the angelic hosts of brave and honorable producers who gambled on this outrageous experiment on Broadway.
Mary K. Klinger stage-managed the show both in Los Angeles and in New York, unshakable in the face of many tempests.
The play has benefited from the dramaturgical work of Leon Katz and K. C. Davis, as well as the directors and actors who have participated in its various workshops and productions.
Stephen Spinella, Joe Mantello and Ellen McLaughlin have made invaluable suggestions on shaping and editing.
David Esbjornson, who directed the play in its first draft in San Francisco, has listened to and commented on its stories ever since.
Tony Taccone made invaluable structuring suggestions during his work on the play in Los Angeles.
Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod directed and designed the play at the National Theatre in London. Their early insights and responses have been challenging and helpful and have goaded me to keep trying to make the play better.
George C. Wolfe has been an inspiring and indefatigable collaborator on this final stage of shaping the play; he’s been brilliantly insightful, respectful and galvanizing. The last step was the hardest, and I wouldn’t have managed it without him.
From the revised edition, published in 1996:
While making the most recent revisions in the text, I’ve been particularly indebted to Michael Mayer, Mark Wing-Davey, Brian Kulick and Tess Timoney.
For this edition:
In 2007 Rupert Goold and the Headlong theater production of Angels toured England and played for six weeks at the Lyric Hammersmith in London. The director, Daniel Kramer, in preparation for the production, asked me many questions, and engaged me in a series of delightful, pointed and challenging discussions, which got me back to work on Perestroika for the first time in several years.
In 2009, I saw the first revival of Ivo van Hove’s 2008 production of Angels with the Toneelgroep Amsterdam. As is so often the case in the work of this extraordinary theater artist, Ivo found a new, boldly imaginative form of stage life for Angels through a serious, meticulous, deep exploration of its text. Ivo and I didn’t discuss alterations to the plays, but his production and his company’s performances changed my understanding of what I’d written and powerfully impacted my thinking about further revisions for Perestroika.
Those revisions began in earnest when Jim Houghton and the Signature Theatre Company wanted to include Angels as one of the three plays for my Signature season, in 2010–2011. Because of Jim’s enormous, indefatigable generosity, enthusiasm and patience, as well as the devotion and endless kindness of Beth Whitaker, Kirsten Bowen and the whole Signature staff, it was possible for me to dig into Perestroika, accompanied every step along the way by our director, the great Michael Greif, and the dazzling company of actors he assembled. I was able to experiment with new scenes, talk and argue about them with colleagues whose passion, acuity and talent made exhilarating the scary business of attempting to improve a script that for many years had worked just fine. They bravely allowed me to flounder around, to fine-tune what worked before many preview audiences, and finally to come close to feeling that I’d truly completed a play—at least for the time being. My gratitude extends to Michael and every actor in the company, and most particularly to Bill Heck, who had to incorporate the largest number of changes and who was dedicated, energetic, gracious and fearless throughout.
I’m deeply indebted to Harold Bloom’s reading of the Jacob story, which I first encountered in his introduction to Olivier Revault d’Allonnes’s Musical Variations on Jewish Thought, in which Bloom translates the Hebrew word for “blessing” as “more life.” Bloom expands on his interpretation in The Book of J.
Yiddish translations were graciously provided by the late Joachim Neugroschel, and additionally by Jeffrey Salant.
The late Ian Kramer, Esq. provided essential information about the juridical mischief of the Reagan–era federal bench. The court cases in Act Four, Scene 10, are actual cases with some of the names and circumstances changed.
Sigrid Wurschmidt
Act Two of Perestroika is dedicated to Sigrid Wurschmidt, a radiantly intelligent, passionate and beautiful actor and a member of the Eureka Theatre Company. The part of the Angel was originally written for her. While I was writing the play, Sigrid was diagnosed with breast cancer. Anticipating her hair falling out during chemotherapy, she shaved her head, which is one reason the Angel refers to herself as “the bald eagle.”
Angels was originally meant to be a two-hour-long play. In the fall of 1988, having finished the first draft of two acts and most of a third act that covered less than half of the narrative I’d outlined, I flew to San Francisco to read what I’d written with the Eureka actors and Oskar Eustis. The purpose of the reading was to help Oskar and me decide what could be cut to bring the play down to a normal length. After the reading, which lasted nearly three hours, everyone walked to Sigrid’s house for a discussion over lunch. On the way, Sigrid took my arm and asked me to tell her what I imagined would happen in the rest of the play. I told her. When we reached her house I showed her a sketch in my notebook for Harper’s final speech about her night flight to San Francisco. Sigrid read it, and told me that the play needed to be long enough to include it. I responded that the play was already so long that I didn’t see how I’d be able to fit much more in. “Well you have to use this speech,” Sigrid replied, and then added, matter-of-factly, “make the play two evenings long.” That possibility hadn’t occurred to me, at least not consciously, and I took it as being one of those silly things you say to comfort a playwright in trouble. But she made sure I understood: she meant it.
Sigrid played the Angel in the first-ever public reading of Millennium Approaches, at Mark Taper Forum’s Taper Too in Los Angeles, in the fall of 1989. After that reading, too ill to continue, she handed the role over to her close friend and mine, the divine Ellen McLaughlin. Sigrid died in 1990.
And finally:
My friends and indispensable colleagues Antonia Grilikhes-Lasky and Kyle Warren, in addition to epic note-taking and endless proofreading, were tireless, supportive, and offered sage advice throughout this process.
My agent, Joyce Ketay, took me on as a client in 1984, when I’d written one play that had yet to receive a professional production. She’s protected me and my work through many perilous passages; her advice, attention and acumen prevented Angels from killing its author and vice versa. She’s one of my dearest friends. I rely
on her too often and for far too much and she never complains, though sometimes she makes faces.
My existence since birth has been bracketed by my extraordinary sister and brother, Lesley and Eric, who keep the world glued together for me, and for whose support I’m more thankful than it’s my ability or any sibling’s obligation to fully express.
I met my husband, Mark Harris, after much of my work on Angels had been completed, but for the play’s ongoing life, as he has for everything in my ongoing life, he’s provided wise counsel, a writer’s unerring ear, a sharp editor’s eye, and more happiness than I ever expected to find in this ongoing life. And also he’s very very funny.
A few months after I started work on Perestroika in 1990, my mother, Sylvia Deutscher Kushner, died of cancer. She’s a mighty presence in the play.
My father, William David Kushner, died in March 2012. He was a great artist and a great father and he, too, is everywhere in these pages.
Oskar Eustis commissioned Angels in America and has been intimately involved in every stage of its development. Without his great intelligence, talent, friendship and determination, the project would have been neither begun nor completed. I began Angels as a conversation, real and imaginary, between Oskar and myself; that conversation has never stopped, and never will.
Without Mark Bronnenberg, my first lover, my forever friend, and one of my favorite homosexuals, I wouldn’t have known any of the things I needed to know to write Angels.
Kimberly T. Flynn taught me much of what I now believe to be true about life: theory and practice. Her words and ideas are woven through the work, and our friendship formed its bedrock. This is her play as much as it’s mine.
Production History
The actors, directors and designers who have worked with me on Angels in America have transformed it. The following list includes those productions that significantly contributed to the play’s development.
Millennium Approaches was first performed in a workshop production presented by Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, in May 1990. It was directed by Oskar Eustis. Sets were designed by Mark Wendland, costumes by Lydia Tanji, lights by Casey Cowan and Brian Gale, and music by Nathan Birnbaum. The cast was as follows:
ROY COHN
Richard Frank
JOE PITT
Jeffrey King
HARPER PITT
Lorri Holt
BELIZE
Harry Waters, Jr.
LOUIS IRONSON
Jon Matthews
PRIOR WALTER
Stephen Spinella
HANNAH PITT
Kathleen Chalfant
THE ANGEL
Ellen McLaughlin
The world premiere of Millennium Approaches was presented by the Eureka Theatre Company in San Francisco, in May 1991. It was directed by David Esbjornson. Sets were designed by Tom Kamm, costumes by Sandra Woodall, and lights by Jack Carpenter and Jim Cave. The cast was as follows:
ROY COHN
John Bellucci
JOE PITT
Michael Scott Ryan
HARPER PITT
Anne Darragh
BELIZE
Harry Waters, Jr.
LOUIS IRONSON
Michael Ornstein
PRIOR WALTER
Stephen Spinella
HANNAH PITT
Kathleen Chalfant
THE ANGEL
Ellen McLaughlin
Perestroika was first performed in a staged reading by the Eureka Theatre Company in San Francisco, in May 1991. It was directed by David Esbjornson. Sets were designed by Tom Kamm, costumes by Sandra Woodall and lights by Jack Carpenter and Jim Cave. The cast was as follows:
ROY COHN
John Bellucci
JOE PITT
Michael Scott Ryan
HARPER PITT
Anne Darragh
BELIZE
Harry Waters, Jr.
LOUIS IRONSON
Michael Ornstein
PRIOR WALTER
Stephen Spinella
HANNAH PITT
Kathleen Chalfant
THE ANGEL
Ellen McLaughlin
Millennium Approaches opened in London, at the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, in January 1992. It was directed by Declan Donnellan. It was designed by Nick Ormerod, lights by Mick Hughes, and music by Paddy Cunneen. The cast was as follows:
ROY COHN
Henry Goodman
JOE PITT
Nick Reding
HARPER PITT
Felicity Montagu
BELIZE
Joseph Mydell
LOUIS IRONSON
Marcus D’Amico
PRIOR WALTER
Sean Chapman
HANNAH PITT
Rosemary Martin
THE ANGEL
Nancy Crane
THE RABBI, HENRY, MARTIN HELLER, PRIOR I
Jeffrey Chiswick
Perestroika was further developed in a workshop at Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, in May 1992. Oskar Eustis and Tony Taccone directed the staged reading. The cast was as follows:
ROY COHN
Lawrence Pressman
JOE PITT
Jeffrey King
HARPER PITT
Cynthia Mace
BELIZE
Harry Waters, Jr.
LOUIS IRONSON
Joe Mantello
PRIOR WALTER
Stephen Spinella
HANNAH PITT
Kathleen Chalfant
THE ANGEL
Ellen McLaughlin
The world premiere of Angels in America, Parts One and Two, was presented at Center Theatre Group/Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, in November 1992. It was directed by Oskar Eustis and Tony Taccone. Sets were designed by John Conklin, costumes by Gabriel Berry, lights by Pat Collins, and music by Mel Marvin. The cast was as follows:
ROY COHN
Ron Leibman
JOE PITT
Jeffrey King
HARPER PITT
Cynthia Mace
BELIZE
K. Todd Freeman
LOUIS IRONSON
Joe Mantello
PRIOR WALTER
Stephen Spinella
HANNAH PITT
Kathleen Chalfant
THE ANGEL
Ellen McLaughlin
Millennium Approaches opened at the Walter Kerr Theatre in New York, in April 1993, followed by Perestroika in November 1993. It was directed by George C. Wolfe. Sets were designed by Robin Wagner, costumes by Toni-Leslie James, lights by Jules Fisher, and music by Anthony Davis. The cast was as follows:
ROY COHN
Ron Leibman
JOE PITT
David Marshall Grant
HARPER PITT
Marcia Gay Harden
BELIZE
Jeffrey Wright
LOUIS IRONSON
Joe Mantello
PRIOR WALTER
Stephen Spinella
HANNAH PITT
Kathleen Chalfant
THE ANGEL
Ellen McLaughlin
Perestroika was presented at New York University/Tisch School of the Arts by the third-year students of the Graduate Acting Program, in April 1993. It was directed by Michael Mayer. Sets were designed by Tony Cisek and Andrew Hall, costumes by Robin J. Orloff, lights by Jack Mehler, and music by Michael Philip Ward. The cast was as follows:
ROY COHN
Ben Shenkman
JOE PITT
Robert Carin
HARPER PITT
Debra Messing
BELIZE
Mark Douglas
LOUIS IRONSON
Johnny Garcia
PRIOR WALTER
Daniel Zelman
HANNAH PITT
Vivienne Benesch
THE ANGEL
Jenna Stern
Angels in America, Parts One and Two, opened at the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain in London, in November 1993. It was dire
cted by Declan Donnellan. Sets and costumes were designed by Nick Ormerod, lights by Mick Hughes, and music by Paddy Cunneen. The cast was as follows:
ROY COHN
David Schofield
JOE PITT
Daniel Craig
HARPER PITT
Clare Holman
BELIZE
Joseph Mydell
LOUIS IRONSON
Jason Isaacs
PRIOR WALTER
Stephen Dillane
HANNAH PITT
Susan Engel
THE ANGEL
Nancy Crane
THE RABBI, HENRY, MARTIN HELLER, PRIOR I, PRELAPSARIANOV
Harry Towb
Angels was presented by the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, in September 1994. It was directed by Mark Wing-Davey. Sets were designed by Kate Edmunds, costumes by Catherine Zuber, and lights by Christopher Akerlind. The cast was as follows:
ROY COHN
Peter Zapp
JOE PITT
Steven Culp
HARPER PITT
Julia Gibson
BELIZE
Gregory Wallace
LOUIS IRONSON
Ben Shenkman
PRIOR WALTER
Garret Dillahunt