Angels and Sugared Windows Pt. 1
Sep. 20th, 2004 03:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
talktoolooseWe watched the TV version of Angels in America this weekend and I was knocked off my seat. Angels is spectacularly complex and a delicate balance of gut-wrenching tragedy, elemental philosophy and high verbal comedy. This is my second time through the epic, having seen both halves on B'way in one day a few years ago. I would opine that the TV version is superior.
The Broadway production, despite the humour of the actors, had an oppressive quality that made the fifth and sixth hours seem really long. But the possibilities of set decoration, light and effects and the directorial sensibilities of Mike Nichols made the balance just right. The performances were staggering, especially Al Pacino and Emma Thompson. Also, Jeffrey Wright, Patrick Wilson and an astonishing turn by Mary-Louise Parker. Meryl Streep was merely brilliant. Note: her yiddish-inflected reading of the kaddish was flawless even if Ethel Rosenberg did look a bit goyish around the eyes.
The play casts an unblinking stare at just how hard it is to live in this world and yet how sweet the smallest particle of life can be; how low people can sink into unlove and how lost they can become in that dark place and yet how they can rise to magnificence when love blooms unexpectedly. The story reveals the blinkers of both the right and left in politics and how ideology is both a blessing and a curse.
And furthermore, it is hilarious, sexy and utterly beautiful.
The Broadway production, despite the humour of the actors, had an oppressive quality that made the fifth and sixth hours seem really long. But the possibilities of set decoration, light and effects and the directorial sensibilities of Mike Nichols made the balance just right. The performances were staggering, especially Al Pacino and Emma Thompson. Also, Jeffrey Wright, Patrick Wilson and an astonishing turn by Mary-Louise Parker. Meryl Streep was merely brilliant. Note: her yiddish-inflected reading of the kaddish was flawless even if Ethel Rosenberg did look a bit goyish around the eyes.
The play casts an unblinking stare at just how hard it is to live in this world and yet how sweet the smallest particle of life can be; how low people can sink into unlove and how lost they can become in that dark place and yet how they can rise to magnificence when love blooms unexpectedly. The story reveals the blinkers of both the right and left in politics and how ideology is both a blessing and a curse.
And furthermore, it is hilarious, sexy and utterly beautiful.
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no subject
Date: 2004-09-20 01:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-20 01:46 pm (UTC)No special features! Major rip-off! I would watch the whole six hours with commentary if I could.
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Date: 2004-09-20 01:45 pm (UTC)I think it's available on DVD ....
no subject
Date: 2004-09-20 01:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-20 03:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-09-20 05:05 pm (UTC)