I, too, sing America.

The 2003 HBO miniseries Angels in America is based on Tony Kushner's plays from the early '90s. The miniseries combines two plays: Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes; Part One, Millennium Approachesand Part Two, Perestroika. (We were somewhat amused that HBO dropped the subtitle, although I'll concede it is a bit ungainly.)

The plays are set in 1985 in New York City and most of the main characters are affected directly or indirectly by AIDS. The characters include former drag queens, openly gay men, deeply closeted gay men, Mormons, and Ethel Rosenberg. There are many issues: religion, politics, spirituality, sex, happiness, family, communism, money, power -- really the whole gamut. You name it, it's probably here.

The play made quite a splash: Among other awards of note, Millennium won a Tony and garnered Kushner a Pulitzer Prize in 1993. Perestroika won its own share of awards, also winning a Tony in 1994. B and I studied the play in the modern drama class we took together in grad school. We really only remembered bits and pieces of the play, but were looking forward to seeing the HBO version. HBO's production was praised by critics and won scads of Emmys and other awards. Kushner himself wrote the adaptation, so the HBO version stays pretty true to the plays.

While there is no doubt this version is made to be a film, it retains much of its theatrical framework. For example, the original play was written for eight actors, most of whom play multiple roles. This double casting adds its own layer of meaning. Some of this double casting is carried through in the HBO miniseries.

It's a difficult plot to summarize, but I think listing the main characters with a brief description will give you the basic setup. The primary characters are

1. Prior Walter (Justin Kirk): gay, WASP from old family (yes, there were prior Prior Walters), former drag queen, has AIDS;


2. Louis Ironson (Ben Shankman): neurotic, gay, Jewish, was Prior's boyfriend, leaves him as he can't bear Prior's illness;


3. Belize (Jeffrey Wright): gay (flamboyantly and probably stereotypically so), black, also former drag queen, a night nurse, an old friend of Prior's;


4. Joe Pitt (Patrick Wilson): closeted (but emerging) gay man, Mormon, Republican, lawyer (anyone see any potential conflicts there?);


5. Harper Pitt (Mary-Louise Parker): unbalanced wife of Joe, also grew up Mormon, addicted to valium, realizes the truth about Joe's sexuality, having a breakdown;


6. Roy Cohn (Al Pacino): closeted gay, Jewish, unethical lawyer and an unpleasant man, dying of AIDS, father figure to Joe (In a bit of an aside, when we were looking up more details about the Rosenbergs, B and I learned that Roy Cohn was a real person. This is clearly a weak spot in my historical knowledge. Some of you will recognize he was the corrupt and controversial lawyer who was very influential in the Communist hunts and espionage trials of the early fifties and he was Joseph McCarthy's righthand man for some time. It turns out that he was also more likely than not a closeted homosexual and he died of AIDS in 1986. In Angels in America and in life, Cohn insisted until the end that he had liver cancer.);


7. Hannah Pitt (Meryl Streep): Joe's mother. Comes to New York from SLC to help(?) Joe and Harper; and


8. The Angel (Emma Thompson). Prior is visited by the angel who tells him he is the prophet, but Prior is reluctant to take on this task.

There is more to say on this than could possibly be contained in one blog entry. It is, after all, six hours long. Despite the seriousness of the themes, Angels is incredibly funny at times. You go from being horrified, amused, outraged, charmed, depressed, and optimistic. It's a bizarre mix of gritty reality and glitzy fantasy, of trauma and humor. Ultimately, though, we are left with a sense of hope. Irrationally so, maybe, but there it is.