Nearly three decades after its Broadway premiere, the drama hailed by Newsweek as “the most ambitious American play of our time” is coming to Clarksville’s oldest professional theatre.
ANGELS IN AMERICA, Part One: Millennium Approaches, opens at the Roxy Regional Theatre on Thursday, March 17, at 7:00pm. In keeping with the theatre’s pay-what-you-can opening night tradition, all tickets not pre-sold at the regular price will go on sale at 6:30pm that evening for a $5 minimum donation. (Out of an abundance of caution due to the impending winter storm forecast for the evening of Friday, March 11, the original opening of this production was postponed.)
In the first part of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize- and Tony Award-winning epic masterpiece, New Yorkers grapple with the harsh reality of the HIV/AIDS epidemic during the conservative Reagan administration of the 1980s.
Roxy Regional Theatre Executive Director Ryan Bowie plays Prior Walter, a 30-year-old New Yorker whose lover Louis, played by Calvin Malone, abandons him when he falls ill with AIDS. Transcendent forces — visions and angels — help transform Prior from a man dying of AIDS to a man living with AIDS.
Along the way, several romantic and platonic couples come apart, and the final social configuration of the play comprises a loose band of multigenerational, multiracial, queer friends. Often metaphorical and at times symbolic, its call for humanity, empathy, compassion and inclusion make ANGELS IN AMERICA as timely as ever.
“The relevance and message of ANGELS IN AMERICA still rings true today, 25 years later, and that is one of the reasons I am so passionate about bringing this production to our stage in Season 39,” says Bowie, who is also directing the production. “As a homosexual man, the fear of HIV and AIDS is ingrained in our community. But deep down, no matter the circumstance, everyone deals with the fear of death and despair. ANGELS IN AMERICA reminds us we can find hope and the reason to live again by allowing ourselves to discuss our differences and find a common voice.”
The cast also features Matthew Combs and Sara Anderson as Joe and Harper Pitt, a young Mormon couple facing addiction and closeted homosexuality; Jama Bowen as Joe’s mother Hannah; Darren V. Michael as the infamous McCarthy-ite lawyer Roy M. Cohn; David Ridley as drag queen-turned-nurse Belize; and Emily Rourke as the Angel.
Produced in part by Ted & David Jones and Melissa A. Schaffner, with additional funding support provided by Brandon & Amanda Pitt, ANGELS IN AMERICA is presented through special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc., www.broadwayplaypub.com.
Performances run March 17 through March 26 on Thursdays at 7:00pm and Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm, with 2:00pm matinees on Saturday, March 19 and 26.
Please note: This production contains strong language, sexual content and adult situations which may not be suitable for all audiences.
Tickets are $30 (adults) and $15 (10 and under) and may be reserved online via the button below, by phone at (931) 645-7699, or at the theatre during regular box office hours (9:00am to 2:00pm, Monday through Friday, and one hour prior to curtain). Military and APSU students can receive two tickets for the price of one to Thursday performances during the run, while CitySaver coupon holders can receive two tickets for the price of one to Friday performances.
