Angels in America, Part 2: Perestroika; Cygnet Theatre in Old Town; March 6 thru April 20, 2019
By Eric George Tauber
SAN DIEGO — I can only imagine the reactions when Tony Kushner first proposed “Angels in America,” a seven-hour epic in two parts about AIDS in the 80s. Surely somebody said, “Are you nuts?!” Yet they went for it and won Tonys. And the show has grown legs with the two parts now playing in repertory at the Cygnet Theatre in Old Town.
Lonely and distraught, Joe and Louis find each other, but they couldn’t be more mismatched. Joe is a devout Mormon who has been doggedly suppressing his gay desires. Louis is a secular Jew who has been in the life for years. Louis despises Republicans and all that they stand for. Joe diligently tows the GOP party line.
Connor Sullivan gives a layered performance as Joe. He’s spending his nights with Louis, but he’s still the Mormon boy on his mission. He stammers through unfinished sentences, unable to name the road he has taken. And Wil Bethman seethes with righteous indignation as Louis, especially when he confronts Joe about legal decisions that put the interests of corporations over the people they hurt.
James Newcomb is captivating as Roy Cohn. Covered in lesions and wracked with pain, he’s as cantankerous as ever, shouting insults, epithets and demands. And yet his suffering is so great that there’s no satisfaction in watching it. Kevane La’Marr Coleman is marvelous as Belize, Cohn’s nurse. As a black, gay man, he knows his place on the social ladder, yet clings to his dignity with ardour.
Debra Wanger shines gloriously as the angel. She recounts how God grew bored with the angelic host in favor of the more imaginative humanity.
Rosina Reynolds, as the last living Bolshevik, speaks with single-minded conviction of the ideals that they fought for. It takes an actor of her gravitas to play the many roles bestowed upon her including Hannah, Joe’s mother. Not one to gush with affection, she comes across as aloof and yet is fiercely devoted. And the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, the scientist who betrayed the US by giving nuclear secrets to the Soviets. Cohn saw to it that she got the chair, so now she’s come to gloat. But even her embittered heart is moved to compassion. It’s very moving when she helps Louis recite the Kaddish over Cohn’s body.
Rachel van Wormer breaks our hearts as Joe’s jilted wife, Harper. Frightfully anxious, Harper takes refuge with her mother-in-law in the Mormon Visitor Center. Hats off to Scenic Designer Andrew Hull. My favorite moment was when the wall opened up to reveal a diorama of the Mormons’ trek west. Connor Sullivan is fun to watch as the animatronic mannequin. And we have to wonder, how many of us go through life like that, donning costumes in an artificial world repeatedly mouthing the lines that were programmed into us?
A standing ovation to Sean Murray and the Cygnet Theatre for taking on such an ambitious project and bringing it to life with such a crackerjack ensemble. “Angels in America” is playing at the Cygnet Theatre through April 20th. And binge-watchers can make a day of it catching both parts on Saturdays.
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Tauber is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts. He may be contacted via eric.tauber@sdjewishworld.com