Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes
Nathan Lane as Roy M. Cohn and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett as Belize in a scene from Tony Kushner’s [more]
Angels in America
Angels in America (New York City Opera)
By eliminating most of the extended fantasy elements of the play, they reduced the storyline to the domestic turbulence of two couples and a deservedly ugly portrait of Roy Cohn. Add in a visit by the iconic Bethesda Fountain Angel (here totally generic) and some very dramatic, brass-heavy music and you have this intriguing production by New York City Opera that succeeds as an opera as long as one is not familiar with the source material. What seemed heavy going and existential in the original comes across on a much more human level in the opera. [more]
Caroline, or Change
There is a lot of anger vented through music in "Caroline, or Change,"; the nearly sung-through musical by Tony Award-winner Tony Kushner (book and lyrics) and Jeanine Tesori (music). Operatic in its aspirations and dramatic in its presentation, this unusual musical made enough friends and supporters during its successful run earlier this season Off-Broadway to justify a move to Broadway. The production fits as snugly into the Eugene O'Neill Theater as it did at the Public Theater. [more]