"Millennium Approaches" in the series "Angels in America" by Tony Kushner is an epic, 6-hour play featuring a gay Mormon main character and is praised as a fantastic work of theater. The play delves into themes related to AIDS, homophobia, drug abuse, and abandonment, set against the backdrop of 1980s New York City. It interweaves fictional characters with real historical figures, providing a blend of fictional and historical elements. The writing style is described as brutal, tragic, emotionally rending, but ultimately ending hopefully, making it a quick but impactful read that sheds light on the AIDS crisis.
The play is commended for its strong representation of adult themes and its triumphant ending, despite the challenging subject matter. It is recommended for both its audio play version and the HBO series adaptation, with praises for the incredible reading experience and the engaging portrayal of multidimensional characters struggling with sexuality, religion, and family during a time of crisis. Some readers find the play to be life-changing, urging others to experience it as a performance rather than just reading the script.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
The play contains high content warnings for themes related to AIDS, homophobia, drug abuse, and existential crises.
Has Romance?
Although the focus is not solely on romance, relationships between characters, including LGBTQ+ romance, are present and significant.
From The Publisher:
Winner of the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Winner of the 1993 Tony Award for Best Play. In the first part of Tony Kushner's epic, set in 1980's New York City, a gay man is abandoned by his lover when he contracts the AIDS virus, and a closeted Mormon lawyer's marriage to his pill-popping wife stalls. Other characters include the infamous McCarthy-ite lawyer Roy Cohn, Ethel Rosenberg, a former drag queen who works as a nurse, and an angel.
"Daring and dazzling! The most ambitious American play of our time: an epic that ranges from earth to heaven; focuses on politics, sex and religion; transports us to Washington, the Kremlin, the South Bronx, Salt Lake City and Antarctica; deals with Jews, Mormons, WASPs, blacks; switches between realism and fantasy, from the tragedy of AIDS to the camp comedy of drag queens to the death or at least the absconding of God." -Jack Kroll, Newsweek
"A vast miraculous play … provocative, witty and deeply upsetting … a searching and radical rethinking of American political drama …" -Frank Rich, New York Times
"Something rare, dangerous and harrowing … a roman candle hurled into a drawing room …" -Nicholas de Jongh, London Evening Standard
"An epic theatrical fever dream … a three-hour cliffhanger that leaves you wanting more." -Variety
"A victory for theater, for the transforming power of the imagination to turn devastation into beauty." -John Lahr, New Yorker
"Establishes Kushner as a poet and moral visionary in love with the theater yet awake in the world." -Don Shewey, Village Voice
Ratings (7)
Incredible (2) | |
Loved It (2) | |
It Was OK (2) | |
Did Not Like (1) |
Reader Stats (20):
Read It (7) | |
Want To Read (8) | |
Not Interested (5) |
1 comment(s)
Powerful play
What can you read after
Millennium Approaches?
About the Author:
Tony Kushner's plays include A Bright Room Called Day and Slavs!; as well as adaptations of Corneille's The Illusion, Ansky's The Dybbuk, Brecht's The Good Person of Szecguan and Goethe's Stella.
Current projects include: Henry Box Brown or The Mirror of Slavery; and two musical plays: St. Cecilia or The Power of Music and Caroline or Change. His collaboration with Maurice Sendak on an American version of the children's opera, Brundibar, appeared in book form Fall 2003.
Kushner grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, and he lives in New York.
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