The World Only Spins Forward: The Ascent of Angels in America

467 Pages·2018·8.23 MB·English

by  Isaac Butler

To Kathleen Chalfant and Ellen McLaughlin

CONTENTS
ACT 1: 1978–1990
1. Bad News: The Reagan Revolution and the End of the World
2. The Great Work Begins: New York and San Francisco, 1980–1987
3. I Like Your Cosmology, Baby: AIDS, Roy Cohn, and Mormons
4. Not-Yet-Conscious, Forward Dawning: Developing the Play in San Francisco
and Los Angeles, 1987–1990
ACT 2: 1991–1992
1. Heaven Is a City Much Like San Francisco: Eureka Theatre Company, 1991
Interlude: Hannah Pitt
2. Threshold of Revelation: Royal National Theatre, London, 1992
Interlude: Roy Cohn
3. Prepare the Way: The Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, 1992
Interlude: Joe Pitt
4. When I Open My Eyes, You’ll Be Gone: Getting Fired from Angels in
America
ACT 3: 1993–1994
1. Heaven …: Millennium Approaches on Broadway, 1993
2. … I’m in Heaven: Perestroika on Broadway and at the Royal National
Theatre, London, 1993–1994
Interlude: Louis Ironson
ACT 4: 1994–2003
1. I’ll Show You America: The National Tour, 1994–1995
Interlude: The Angel
2. It’s a Promised Land, But What a Disappointing Promise: Angels and the
Culture Wars
Interlude: Belize
3. Very Steven Spielberg: The Angels Film, 1991–2003
ACT 5: 1998–2018
1. It’s What Living Things Do: Angels Transformed
Interlude: Harper Pitt
2. More Life: Royal National Theatre, London, 2017
Interlude: Prior Walter
3. The World Only Spins Forward: The Legacy of Angels
Acknowledgments
Cast of Characters
Index
A Note on the Authors
If I’ve made a fool of myself, I have at least made of myself the kind of
fool I want to be:
That is the virtue and power of pretentiousness.
–Tony Kushner
TONY KUSHNER: Around November of 1985, the first person that I knew
personally died of AIDS. A dancer that I had a huge crush on, a very sweet man
and very beautiful. I got an NEA directing fellowship at the repertory theater in
St. Louis, and right before I left New York, I heard through the grapevine that he
had gotten sick. And then, in November, he died.
And I had this dream: Bill dying—I don’t know if he was actually dying, but
he was in his pajamas and sick on his bed—and the ceiling collapsed and this
angel comes into the room. And then I wrote a poem. I’m not a poet, but I wrote
this thing. It was many pages long. After I finished it, I put it away. No one will
ever see it.
Its title was “Angels in America.”