By Kimberly Rau
The Gamm Theater concluded its 2024-2025 season with a special production of Tony Kushner’s “Angels in America: Millennium Approaches,” a stunning, raw perspective of the AIDS epidemic that swept through America in the 1980s and early 90s.
Kushner wrote “Angels in America” in two parts, “Millennium Approaches,” playing now, and “Perestroika,” which Gamm will present in the fall. In this first part, we meet six New Yorkers who are interconnected through personal/romantic and business relationships, but who couldn’t be more different from one another. It’s the first reminder we get (there are many) that death and tragedy come for us all, regardless of success, economic station, or political views.
Though this is a period piece, Kushner’s beautifully constructed script is a testament to the fact that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Character rants about the state of the country, or politics, earned murmurs of recognition and rueful laughter from the audience. “Angels” is a big show packed with a lot of big ideas– love, death, marriage, sexuality, corruption, what happens to our soul when we die–, but Kushner fills the three-hour runtime with small, intimate vignettes that get to the heart of each concept. We are, after all, just people when you come down to it.
The cast features a heavy crossover between Gamm artists and familiar faces from Trinity Rep, under the direction of Trinity’s Brian McEleney. This is a small state packed with big talent, and it’s delightful to see these incredible actors sharing the stage.
Prior Walter and Louis Ironson are a couple who have been together a long time, but struggle when Prior is diagnosed with AIDS. Prior is played heartbreakingly well by Hass Regen, who masters the perfect balance between Prior’s melodramatic tendencies and his deep vulnerability. Similarly, Ben Steinfeld (Louis) is able to take what could be a deeply unsympathetic character and show us his humanity.
Our second couple includes Joe and Harper, our Mormon couple fresh from Utah. He’s a lawyer who’s been singled out for big things, but that’s only if he can balance his ethical concerns, mentally unstable wife and personal struggles, and so far, it’s not going well. Jeff Church, a master at conflicted characters, is the perfect choice for this role. Harper is well-portrayed by Gabrielle McCauley, who doesn’t let her character’s descent into madness eclipse the Harper’s narrative.
Tony Estrella is Roy Cohn, a portrayal of the real-life conservative lawyer and prosecutor who died of AIDS. Where Prior is vulnerable and realistic, Roy is angry and in denial. When he is first diagnosed, his reaction is to threaten to ruin his doctor for implying he has AIDS (nicely played by Phyllis Kay, who also takes on several other roles in the show). Estrella is another great casting choice here.
Finally, Rachael Warren plays the show’s titular Angel, along with a series of smaller parts, and does a fantastic job with all of them. And Rodney Witherspoon II, who also has several roles in this show, is an excellent Belize, a friend of Prior’s. When Belize must sit through Louis’ diatribe on race in America, Witherspoon’s reactions are perfection.
The set (Patrick Lynch) is beautifully simple, as many of Gamm’s sets are. The backdrop is a run-down liminal space of white subway tiles, festooned with graffiti (most notably, around two dozen penises), every bit the kind of transit station you’d imagine in 1980s Manhattan. It’s a perfect nod to the in-between our characters find themselves in.
Younger audiences may not be able to understand the enormity of what happened in the 1980s. We live in a time where those at risk of contracting HIV can take preventative medication to avoid catching it. Thanks to drug therapies, HIV itself is no longer a death sentence. This was a distant dream when Kushner wrote his plays in 1990 and 1991, and it’s what makes “Angels” especially important today. It’s a poignant work that exposes the reality, and humanity, of an epidemic that threatened a generation, and must be understood by those who came after.
Part Two can’t come soon enough.
“Angels in America: Millennium Approaches” runs through June 22, 2025, at The Gamm Theatre, 1245 Jefferson Blvd., Warwick. Tickets may be obtained at the box office, online at gammtheatre.org or by calling 401.723.4266.
