Review: ANGELS IN AMERICA: PERESTROIKA Completes Roundhouse & Olney's Theatrical Triumph

There was a time when, for many, Heaven looked a lot like San Francisco: the blossoming of the gay counterculture, from nuns on roller-skates and the bath-house scene to the Versailles-scale, mock-splendor of the musical revue Beach Blanket Babylon, what wasn't to love about it? Then came the plague, as devastating to San Francisco's gay community as the Earthquake of 1906. The optimism, the joy, the camp, were all overwhelmed by the shadow of AIDS. The physical city may not have crumbled, but by the time the Loma Prieta Earthquake of 1989 came along, the buildings remained standing but the city and its gay community had already been shaken to its core.

San Francisco must have weighed heavily on Tony Kushner's mind when he sat down to complete Angels in America. Having introduced a spectacular angel in Part 1, Millennium Approaches, he now had to lead audiences to the place from whence she came. Prior Walter, having received the angel and her (utterly baffling) revelation, has the prophet's curiosity about exactly why he should follow this supernatural calling. His discovery that Heaven ain't all it's cracked up to be speaks to the general disillusion of the late 1980's, when many of the old theories and answers fell apart.

In Angels in America, Part 2: Perestroika, Kushner reconceives Heaven as a post-1906 San Francisco, rubble and waste populated by glum angels twisting the knobs of a dodgy old Philco radio with poor reception. Costume designer Ivania Stack has stripped the angels of their white feathers for an outfit that more closely resembles the flying monkeys of Wizard of Oz fame (a flick that gets a hilarious shout-out here). Completely out of touch, these angels serve no purpose but to hold us back, reminding us of what has been lost. Prior, appalled, decides to abandon the angels and return to New York; paradise, for him, is the land of the living, it's here and now, no need for scripture or theory of any kind.

To the untrained eye, the scene looks like yet another mockery of the biblical tradition-typical Marxist, secular-humanist theatre junk. But I suspect Kushner is using this Heaven to reflect on the end of a much nearer and dearer paradise; the ideal whose demise he is mourning is the free-wheeling scene that had made San Francisco a mecca for gays for so many years.

But with the end of this paradise comes the resolve to survive and move on. Whereas Millennium Approaches showed a community in the throes of plague and entropy, Perestroika - Russian for "Restructuring" - ends, after a nearly four-hour journey, on a note of optimism. Roundhouse and Olney Theatre's joint production, while long by Contemporary Theatre-going standards, is as rewarding and heart-warming an evening of theatre as you will ever see. Director Ryan Rilette guides his all-star cast with a sure hand, and the results are unforgettable.

Projection designer Clint Allen, working with the cathedral-like back wall of James Kronzer's set, weaves a number of stunningly beautiful images, but is not above an amusing send-up of the robotic, educational "pioneer" videos--that bored us to tears when we were kids.

It is especially rewarding to see supporting roles from Millennium Approaches blossom in Perestroika. Sarah Marshall's many turns here are of such high quality that it seems unfair to pick just one; but as Hannah, the Mormon mother from Salt Lake City, we see a woman who first appears as a punch-line, right down to her banana-yellow Samsonite luggage, reveal herself as a person of great strength and empathy who becomes a rock of stability for Prior.

The other "surprise" relationship that leaves you deeply moved is when Jon Hudson Odom's Belize finds himself tending to the impossible demands of a dying Roy Cohn (Mitchell Hebert). Both Belize and Cohn have an inner toughness, and a need to give as good (or more than) they get, and in the masterful hands of Hebert and Odom their brutal, mutual honesty is exhilarating to watch. Odom's Belize, like Marshall's Hannah, is seen in full three dimensions, not a stereotype in sight.

Kimberly Gilbert and Thomas Keegan are absolutely riveting as Harper and Joe, the Mormon couple whose marriage finally falls apart. The desperation of their characters, their need for love and honesty lead them both to desperate gestures that reflect their complete vulnerability.

Meanwhile in Prophetville, Dawn Ursula and Tom Story make for a hilariously odd couple, as Angel and Prior Walter. After bellowing incomprehensible prophecies, Angel finds herself besieged by Prior, who wrestles with her (at Hannah's bidding). This comic take on Jacob's biblical bout reveals Ursula's comic chops, and succeeds in blowing up what remaining mystery there may have been about the Hereafter.

Story's charm is a constant throughout this production, and his journey to prophecy and back is as epic as it is a pleasure to watch. His closing monologue-Kushner's homage to everyone from Shakespeare's Puck to Wilder's Stage Manager and Sabina-is as lightly delivered as it is deeply moving.

This production is essential viewing for Washington theatergoers, as I've already noted in my previous review. The thing to keep in mind, however, is that Tony Kushner is a notorious graphomaniac. His dialogue is pitch-perfect and any actor's dream, but he has a habit of trying to address everything under the sun. There is no question of his eloquence, or the memorable characters he delineates. But he prefers long-form storytelling, and for audiences accustomed to 90-minute quickies this can be a bridge too far.

The journey of Angels in America is well worth it, just be sure to avail yourself of the coffee at intermission so you don't miss a single glorious word.

Audience Advisory: Angels in America Part 2: Perestroika features full-frontal nudity, mature situations, and vivid manifestations of various physical ailments (lesions, blood, etc.).

Running Time: approximately 3 hours and 50 minutes, with two intermissions.

Mitchell Hebert (Roy Cohn) and Jon Hudson Odom (Belize). Photography by Danisha Crosby.

Performances of Angels in America, Part 2: Perestroika are September 7-October 30 at the Roundhouse Theatre Bethesda, 4545 East-West Highway, Bethesda, MD.

Tickets can be ordered by calling 240-644-1100, or by logging into http://www.roundhousetheatre.org/buy-tickets/calendar/.

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