Angels in America on DVD

[+ friendofsheila]

I just saw the DVD of Angels in America. At first I was annoyed: "Oh boy, another drama showing gay men as AIDS patients. **Sigh**" But it was so nice to see a nice narrative story told with incredible imagination.

 

Did anyone see the stage version? How was the entrance of the angel done?

[SAdler]

>Did anyone see the stage version? How was the entrance of the

>angel done?

 

I found it to be a PHENOMENAL production. You really shoudl read the stage play though because tehre is a closing "epilogue" of Roy Cohn addressing God that would have been PERFECT for Pacino but was left out. They didn't kill it by leaving stuff out but the book is still phenomenal.

 

I've wanted to see the stage show for quite some time but it's pretty hard to schedule an 8-Hour theater day or a weekend dedicated to the same show.

 

Again, I'm reminded of another couple lines left out of the movie just by typing this -- specifically related to the angel enterance scene. READ it

[+ deej]

I agree, Scott. (Bet you never thought you'd see THOSE words!) The book is unbelievable.

 

The HBO production is still awesome, even with the stuff that had to be cut to fit. I watched it when it originally aired, sitting on the sofa between two pornstars. We spent most of the time holding hands and passing around the box of Kleenex.

 

The acting chops on display, alone, make this DVD set a must see. (Hey, I'd want her as MY rabbi!)

 

Phenomenal.

[larbord]

I saw the marathon version of "Angels" years ago in LA, when the second part was just on its way to Broadway and still a work in transition. As Mr. Adler said, it was an 8 hour production, with a 3 hour dinner break. This made for a very long, emotionally draining day, but the entrance of the angel was something I will never forget.

 

The entrance ended the first play. The character with AIDS was alone in bed, facing the audience, with a wall behind him. As he was speaking, a leaf or two fell from above onto his bed. He looked up to see where they were coming from, when a terrible, rumbling noise began. A crack appeared in the wall behind the bed. The wall suddenly split apart, the lights went out, and the angel, bathed in a brilliant white light, descended from above, and spoke to the terrified character. The theater then went dark.

 

I may have gotten some details wrong over the years, but I still get chills when I think about it.

[Guest ReturnOfS]

It can be annoying, but AIDS is still out there killing us. Also a lot of younger people still don't understand the history. I myself am still coming to terms to just how bad this epedimic was in the early 80s, and how much our government just didn't care. It was before my time, sadly.

 

Of course I have to admit that AIDS has gone well beyond gay communities.

[+ Lucky]

"It was before my time, sadly"

 

Trust me, you should be happy that it was before your time. Otrherwise, you would have had to live through it and perhaps gotten HIV before we knew how to avoid it. The epidemic was simply horrible and a horrible time to be gay. Yet we did show great strength and solidarity as we fought to contain the disease and fund the research into it. Now, AIDS infection rates are creeping back up, so even with new medicines you may still have a chance to live through a new wave of death.

 

It does suprise me that Dave was so unfamiliar with Angels in America as it received a great deal of media attention both as a play and an HBO special. Personnally, I found the HBO production to be much better than the play as it was able to explain visually a lot better than the play did. The scene of the two men dancing to Moon River has to be the most romantic depiction of gay men ever to be on the screen.

 

We live in interesting times. Angels in America is a must-see, imo!

[+ friendofsheila]

>It does suprise me that Dave was so unfamiliar with Angels in

>America as it received a great deal of media attention both as

>a play and an HBO special.

 

 

Not unfamiliar. I lived in LA when it was a very hot ticket. I just didn't have enough money to do go. I also knew well about the HBO Production, just don't have cable.

[+ friendofsheila]

>I may have gotten some details wrong over the years, but I

>still get chills when I think about it.

 

Thanks for the nice description. I look forward to seeing it on stage one day.

[FrancoDiSantisxxx]

Angels in America

 

The play was originally commissioned by the Eureka Theater company in San Francisco and when Tony Kushner delivered two Anna Karina book length manuscripts for a two act play, the company had neither the funds nor the ability to put them both on. The second act was staged as a reading during gay pride month that year and it was a long evening. The original act 1 was very simple and spare, so in that regard (as with many filmed versions of plays), the simple act of making it into a movie can both make a very stagy effect (as it does in another Mike Nichols filmed play, Wit) or it can open up the play a lot. I saw both plays staged about two years later, again in San Francisco, after the show had played on Broadway and won all its awards. You could see that things had been cut from the earlier Act 1 and the earlier staged reading of act 2. Some of the things which were cut for the movie I would favor and others I think are choices that could have been done differently.

 

I also understand that the New York productions were the better of the LA, SF and other traveling shows. On the other hand, I think the HBO production is worth watching, even if you have seen the play.