ANGELS IN AMERICA
VINTAGE THEATRE: MARCH 27 – MAY 10
FLY TO THE BOX OFFICE FOR TICKETS FOR THIS ASTONISHING AND BREATHTAKING PRODUCTION!
Kelly Uhlenhopp and Casey Board (photo credit: RDG Photography)
ANGELS IN AMERICA, PART ONE: MILLENNIUM APPROACHES and PART TWO: PERESTROIKA comprise Tony Kushner’s 1990s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning ‘Gay Fantasia on National Themes.’ Magnificent and massive in its socio-political scope, it is also an intimate work that is perhaps the most important serious dramatic opus of the late twentieth century.
If you are a theatergoer whose taste runs to excellence in dark serious drama, this nearly seven-hour production is not to be missed.
The play, which is currently exploding across Vintage Theatre’s intimate Bond-Trimble stage is set in New York City in the 80’s and features a gay couple, Prior and Louis, and a straight couple, Joe and Harper, struggling with the AIDS crisis, sexuality, religion, society and the abdication of the Reagan administration, which turned a blind eye to the death and devastation of the epidemic. A richly textured work, playwright Kushner has peppered this mostly realistic play with the surreal and the supernatural. Apparitions from one character’s ancestral line as well as historical personages such as Ethel Rosenberg appear at key moments. Sometimes one character’s dream intersects with another’s drug-induced hallucination. Brendan T. Cochran’s minimalist set design is remarkably efficient and makes the performances really pop! Emily Maddox’s lighting design - especially in the final scenes of Part Two - makes us feel as though this production is encoded with light frequencies hitherto unseen in other productions. The sound design by Luke Rahmsdorff-Terry and Patrice Mondragon evokes an otherworldly aspect. Jasper Day’s costume design enhances the show. Whether everyday street clothes, angel wings reflective of our national flag, or jewel-toned cowls and robes for the council of Angels, Day’s costumes dazzle.
Directors Bernie Cardell and Troy Lakey have ignited Part One and Part Two respectively with a fire that is lacking in some productions . Their casting is impeccably correct, and their pacing makes the seven-hour opus ( I saw both parts on the same day!) fly by.
Upon entering the theatre one is regaled with an austere set design done in cemetery grey that is draped, or better, shrouded, in white fabric.
The ensemble’s performances are astounding!
Casey Board, who portrays Prior Walter, conveys an open-hearted vulnerability in his arc from victimization in the initial phase of his prognosis at the top of the play, to the strength of independent self awareness as he seeks “more life” at final curtain.
Dakota C. Hill is mesmerizing and brilliant as Prior’s boyfriend Louis. His performance is richly textured, and one remembers his brilliance from his portrayal of Eric Glass in the 2023 production of “The Inheritance.”
Andrew Uhlenhopp plays Roy Cohn, the heinous lawyer who was the chief counsel for Joseph McCarthy and the prosecutor of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg prior to their execution. Uhlenhopp’s portrayal of this lying, unethical lawyer is loud, abrasive and… riveting!
Kelly Uhlenhopp is jaw-dropping formidable as the Angel! Astonishing! Her portrayal of a crazed homeless person in another scene with Haley Johnson as Mother Pitt is disturbing, and powerfully well delivered as well.
As Joe Pitt’s mother Hannah, Haley Johnson conveys a mostly internalized horror at a phone call from her drunk son. As the specter of Ethel Rosenberg, Johnson’s mostly silent karmic visitations of the dying Cohn are so well-acted that you simply can’t take your eyes off her.
As Prior’s nurse and drag queen friend Belize, Jonathan Underwood delivers a lot of hilariously witty lines spiced up by the voice of reason. In Belize’s interactions with Louis and later with Roy, Underwood injects a biting sarcastic tone. Belize is warmly compassionate in his caring for Prior. He even manages to realistically stuff his emotions and stifle animosity caring for the abusive, bigoted and self destructive Roy Cohn. As Mr. Lies, Underwood accompanies Nicole Kaiser’s Harper Pitt as a sort of tour guide on her valium-induced adventures in consciousness. Superb work!
Chad Hewitt turns in a superb performance as Joe Pitt, the closeted Mormon whose lonely and abandoned wife,Harper, has turned to drugs. Seduced by the machiavellian manipulations of Roy Cohn, Joe falls right in line with the unethical and deadly political machine.
Nicole Kaiser is luminous and haunting as Joe’s wife, Harper. The slight and beautiful actor delivers Harper’s valium-addicted and sexually deprived young wife with an intentionally foggy consciousness. As Martin Heller, Cohn’s toadying political acolyte, Kaiser is brilliant.
It is also to be noted that Andrew Uhlenhopp and Chad Hewitt spice up what up until now had been this reviewer’s least favorite scene. Their appearance in Prior Walter’s dreams as Prior I and Prior 2, the ancestors of this Prior Walter, was invigorating and thrilling!
Advisory: there is simulated sex, strong language and the referencing of drug usage in the production(s.) Leave the kids home.
(Before you go… please know that general admission tickets are only $36.00 for this Great Work. You will be in the intimacy of the Bond-Trimble theatre so you will be only a few feet away from this outrageously talented ensemble. If you’re weighing this ticket against the ones at the larger theaters please remember those tickets range from the hundreds and upwards and place you well back from the stage. You will also have to shell out twenty bucks for parking at certain venues. At Vintage parking is free. How does it get any better? Just sayin.’)
For tickets call the Box Office at 303- 856-7830 or go online at info@vintagetheatre.org
