National Theatre Live: Angels in America Part One - Millennium Approaches

The screenplay and acting performances are just shocking. Not a single actor of the ensemble cast gives a bad acting. The line design and the line delivery are simply speechless. The play takes a comedic and fantastical approach to a very serious and deep subject, making itself rather accessible to the general audiences.

What a thoroughly excellent production of Angels this NT Live broadcast showed us. I wish I had seen it in person. Because last week I ventured to New York City and saw the current NT production there, both parts, all seven-and-a-half hours, in one day. And it blew me away. Many have said the Neil Simon Theater they are in on Broadway is larger and therefore more suited to the larger visual aspects of the production. Can't compare that since I didn't see it live in London, but I can tell you that the staging works very well in their New York theater. Although the sets are still minimal, they carry meaning of their own and work to enhance the production beyond the words and music. (Yes, there's music, and The Music actually got a Tony nomination up against the full-fledged musicals in the category.) I was blown away time and again by the imaginative use of the sets and visual effects which never seemed intrusive and always served their purpose.

Almost to a person, the actors were terrific. I had some problem with blandness and sameness in Denise Gough's playing of Harper, and the new Joe is played by American actor Lee Pace, a fine actor but I just couldn't decide if he had been miscast or if he just hadn't had time to find his character's nuances yet. And unfortunately I saw it in NY on a Wednesday when Amanda Lawrence was out; program note says Beth Malone is filling in for Ms. Lawrence's roles on Wednesdays.

But I personally found all of the other actors gave performances for the ages: Mr. Garfield was simply riveting from his first graceful drag appearance (more on that later) to his final man-up speech to the audience seven hours later. He had me hanging on every word he uttered and every move he made. And I was skeptical, believe me. But after about half an hour Mr. Garfield had won me over and I never looked back. And Mr. Garfield got the single most perfect in unison and loudest laugh I have ever heard in a large theater. I soared to heaven and back on that one. Nathan Lane I was also worried about going in, having only known him from his great comedy performances. But he was as chilling a Roy Cohn as you could ever want. And was, believe it or not, also very funny. (As was Mr. Garfield in the midst of all his suffering and delusions.) James McCardle and Susan Brown and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett were superb in the main and subordinate characters that they played. None of their characters was given short shrift. All stood in high relief.

But I notice in the other three reviews here there are a couple of effeminophobes who had major problems with Mr. Garfield's interpretation of Prior Walter. As did some reviewers. I did not. There are many ways Prior Walter can be played, and Mr. Garfield chose to commit to an interpretation that can find support all over the place in the text and I found him exhilarating to follow along his journey. Prior was a drag queen, after all, as were Louis and Belize. And as no two drag queens comport themselves the same "offstage", there are many ways these three characters can be played. So you can hardly fault any moments of drag-queen softness or drag-queen movement or drag-queen bitchiness from any of these three.

And I would point you to some advice Tony Kushner (the playwright) gave to Jason Isaacs (not even playing Prior, but rather Isaacs was tackling Louis in the original production) way back during rehearsals for the first production of Angels in 1993. And I quote from a 2017 article: "Isaacs recalls the 'invaluable' lessons that Kushner taught him about playing the character of Louis when he shadowed him for a few days in New York. One was to ignore anyone in rehearsals that found being effeminate offensive or unattractive, all of which he says happened. 'Louis and Prior were in your face screaming queens and it was everybody else's problem to deal with it,' he says. Another was that the character of Louis wasn't Kushner himself. 'He was bloody close, though.' And importantly, 'that nobody has the answers in life.'

But I will say that in the NY production Mr. Garfield seems to have toned the drag down a bit from the NT Live performance in many serious moments, but he still screams like a little girl when the angel is breaking in to see him, but it's perfectly in his character and perfectly hilarious. By the end I was in awe of both Garfield's and Nathan Lane's deep dives into the extremes of their characters whether those extremes flatter or repulse. It all worked for me.

Fly to NYC and see this one before July 15. You won't be disappointed. Eleven Tony nominations, most ever for a nonmusical play. (And as I say, they even have a chance to win Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theater.)

Angels in America is up there with the greatest works ever written for the theatre, but this NT production is seriously sub-standard in many respects. While the brilliance of Kushner's work shines through, this is nevertheless a limp, one-note, caricature-filled interpretation of his plays(s), unimaginatively designed, and directed, for the most part, like a middling sit-com. Andrew Garfield is mostly annoying as Prior Walter. He gives a performance that is fey and whiny beyond anything in the script, with too little of the strength and intelligence that is also there. He reduces the part to just another bitchy queen, seemingly more inspired by a camp Bette Davis impersonation than any real three-dimensional gay man. I also question why the director chose to depict three of the four main gay characters as flaming, sibilant, wrist-flapping sissies. Two of the four are wearing nail varnish throughout. Now, seriously, do two of every four gay men you know wear nail varnish? Do any of them? And does a gay man covered in lesions, shitting blood, dying of AIDS really take time to re-apply his nail varnish?! It's just one detail, but it's a telling one, in that it is typical of the way this production reduces characters to caricatures, rather than goes for complexity and nuance. The main saving grace of the production is Nathan Lane, who is appropriately chilling and revolting as Roy Cohn. His speech dismissing his AIDS diagnoses and denying that he's even gay, shows exactly where Donald Trump learned his "fake news" tirades (Cohn was Trump's lawyer and mentor). But Lane's star turn is not enough to make this a worthwhile interpretation of Angels. At the end of it all I just wanted to watch the HBO adaptation of the plays again, so that that superb version would wipe this one from my memory.

Eight hours in a theatre (or in this case my two favourite cinemas; The Cameo in Edinburgh for Part 1 and The Hippodrome in Bo'ness for Part 2) is a daunting prospect, especially when the subject matter threatens to overwhelm you emotionally.

In fact it is a breeze because the writing of Tony Kushner and the direction of Marianne Elliot (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night) pepper this doomsday epic with both humour and beauty (in staging, lighting, sound and movement – it's a technical masterpiece throughout).

The acting is uniformly brilliant with Andrew Garfield in the lead role of AIDS sufferer Prior Walter. But the support he gets from Nathan Lane, in particular, is astounding. Core ensemble shout outs also have to go to the entire cast especially Denise Gough, James McArdle, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and Russell Tovey.

Whilst, at times, you might want Garfield to slightly reign in the histrionics (and the fey gayness to be honest) you sit with bated breath waiting for Nathan Lane to go off on vitriolic outburst after hateful rant. He plays a corrupt, gay bashing (ironic) lawyer who has no limit to what he will do to save himself (he too had AIDS but says it's cancer, having spent his entire life in the closet, much to the disgust of most of the rest of the male gay cast). He is the highlight of the show.

Although ostensibly a 'gay fantasia' the background of story is built largely on a religious platform. The AIDS 'plague' has clear biblical connotations and the angels of the title are fantastical creations that are there to question morality, justice, belief and whether or not there is an afterlife.

The creation of the 'main' Angel played by six dancers/puppeteers and Amanda Lawrence as the angel itself is breathtakingly original and continuously mesmerising. She's magic.

I grew up during the 'AIDS Epidemic' and my home city of Edinburgh had to deal with an almost unique needle sharing problem, as well as the gay spread of the disease, (It's well captured in Trainspotting) so, that meant it was as much a heterosexual issue as a homosexual one in Edinburgh, Consequently, HIV/AIDS was very front of mind in this city. Another reason that the story strongly resonated with me.

Two of the central characters are Mormons and that particular creed comes in for some pretty hefty slagging although overall you sense that Kushner has deep religious beliefs or at least is hedging his bets on whether there is a God. The fact that both Louis and Nathan Lane's evil character are both Jews is also an important part of the storyline and leads to considerable debate about the morals of that belief, compared to Christianity.

Politics, too, feature heavily in the storyline with a clear leaning towards both Socialism and the Democrats that make Reagan (the then leader) an object of ridicule. Indeed Part Two is subtitled Perestroika with a certain reverence for it's chief architect Gorbachov in evidence.

One of the lead characters (a gay nurse, Belize) former lover of both Prior (Garfield) and Luois (McArdle) and an ex drag queen is black and proud of it. As he nurses Lane's character (Roy Cohn) this opens up another topic for Kushner to at times hilariously, at times terrifyingly, exploit; racism. The man is a pig and it's all that Belize can do to maintain his dignity and ethical professionalism to tolerate the monster that he tends. In fact a relationship develops that is, at times, surprisingly tolerant and even tender.

Meanwhile closet gay and Mormon, Joe Pitt (Tovey), married to Valium addicted Harper (the superb Denise Gough) is straying into an experimental homosexual exploration of his sexuality with Louis (former lover of both Belize and Prior) this has massive personal consequences. McArdle, in particular, plays a really strong supporting role and has the subtlety to play his part with conviction and sympathy. He's the 'tart with a heart' but can't deal with all the consequences of these tumultuous times for the world's gay population.

It's complicated. And that's why Kushner needs eight hours to unravel the labyrinthine plot and the fundamental BIG questions it tackles, but he does so with great skill and lightness of touch.

The National Theatre are to be applauded for reviving this monumental work. And it's to our great fortune that we can experience it (from essentially front row seats) in small movie theatres all over the world.

A production that has wowed audiences and critics alike, I expect to see it pick up many more London Theatre awards. If you get the chance to see it when NTLive does a reprise, kill for tickets.

Have always gotten so much pleasure out of going to see the National Theatre Live screenings at the cinema. There is a real sense of authenticity in the auditorium despite seeing it much more accessibly. They are also a great opportunity to see a lot of familiar plays, often favourites, with enormously talented casts, and they are an equally great opportunity to discover plays completely unfamiliar to one beforehand.

That was the case with both parts of 'Angels in America', the first part being 'Millenium Approaches' and the second 'Perestroika'. Just doing one part rather than both is a mammoth task by itself. Doing both parts, and with the same cast for continuity, is even more of a Herculean undertaking. Was not familiar with either 'Angels in America' part before seeing the screenings and am so glad about seeing them. Both parts are must sees as are the productions of both, an enormous amount had to be taken on and both did so brilliantly.

While 'Perestroika' is a touch more imaginative in scope and visuals perhaps, to me 'Millenium Approaches' is a little tighter in pace and more taut structurally despite being more talky in dialogue. They are equal in the performances and staging fronts though. Really appreciated that both parts make a difficult and sensitive subject accessible to anybody who wasn't born during the period depicted, or like me just missed it, and also make it remarkably relevant. It is a very serious and brave subject treated with respect and both productions managed to make something entertaining, moving and imaginative out of it without distaste coming through.

'Millenium Approaches' may not be as visually striking as 'Perestroika', but it manages to have the right amount of not going over the top that it becomes overblown or being so minimal it looks under-budgeted. The dialogue provokes a lot of thought and amuses, moves and intrigues. It is a long play but it never feels it, with the pace being tight without feeling have-a-train-to-catch rushed. The stage direction never falls into distaste or irrelevance and manages to make the storytelling and subject accessible while not trivialising, the emotional impact is felt.

All the performances are superb, with James McArdle, Denise Gough and Russell Tovy portraying their conflicted characters with heartfelt charisma, Gough in particular.

Two in particular stood out. Andrew Garfield as the most developed character of both parts brings the right amount of camp and anguish. Most surprising was Nathan Lane, absolutely chilling as Cohn and proving that he can do more than just comedy.

In conclusion, outstanding. 10/10