Yes, I just received my physical CD, as I preordered it back in March. The sound is perfect, the narration wonderful, and it was so great to hear this beautiful story again.
Popping in here to say I saw "Broadway Revival Cast of Angels" and read it as "Broadway Revival City of Angels" and it's not that I'm disappointed, but I'm not happy.
I listened to the free sample and there's just something about the Harper that makes my flesh crawl. ICE PARTICLES IN MY LUNGS! SHARP! Ugh. I saw the cinecast of Part 1 and never even went back for part 2. When the transfer was announced I was conflicted because I'd have liked to see Lee Pace and Nathan Lane and especially Beth Malone when she went in. But that was late in the run during my busy work season.
I'm something of an Angels in America nut. Saw the original broadway cast, then again with 50% replacements. then the first national tour. Alliance Theater production. Ivo von Hove's Dutch version at BAM. Oskar Eustis's incredible Trinity Rep production. And the CRIMINALLY OVERLOOKED off-Broadway revival with Billy Porter, Christian Borle and Zachary Quinto.
I thought the Brit revival was miscast and misguided. I think if what Garfield said about Kushner advising him that Pryor and Louis are FLAMING and want everybody in the room to know they are gay was bad advice taken too literally. I think it encouraged them to sabotage those characters, at least what I saw in the cinecast of the first half. Russell Tovey and Nathan Lane were pretty good though.
But that Harper. Yeesh. And that fugly angel, once I was able to find her on the theater screen, yuck.
You didn't see the show on Broadway, the show that is persevered on this recording, and you only listened to a tiny part with Denise so....unless you listen to the whole thing your view doesn't really matter.
I saw this in London and in New York. James and Andrew did such a brilliant job, their chemistry was incredible. The entire cast worked so well together, this was thrilling to listen to once again.
Oh LupitasHeadband, you conveniently left out that I saw the Millennium Approaches in the movie theater before the transfer was announced and I thought everybody but Tovey and Lane were terrible. As time passes, the younger characters in this play are played by actors completely lacking consciousness of the AIDS epidemic’s earlier days and it showed in this production. I’m not sure what the best approach going forward will be but when Kushner said the director asked “all the right questions” I can’t imagine what they were. There are still enough directors around who knew it first hand. Like Michael Grief at the Signature revival. Lane’s performance was grounded in New York City in the early days of AIDS. Everybody else laid the Fantasia on too thick
The Antarctica scene, as filmed and presented to paying audiences including me, was completely subpar. I’ve seen 9 different Harper Pitts onstage and she didn’t land anywhere near them. After reading the conversation between Lee Pace and Jessica Lange In “Interview,” he had a horrible time working with his scene partner. Not surprised.
I suppose they were all fine for audiences who have never seen a live production before. And to them I say Mazel Tov. It’s a great play. You deserve chances to see it done well. I’ll say this about Garfield. He was just as good as Justin Kirk in the HBO series. They were both bad in completely different ways.
Lololzzz I will skip your novel response and just say this thread is about the Audiobook for the NYC production of Angels in America, which you did not see and you see to be complaining about. No need for your opinion, you can move on now.
The clip I heard, of the Antarctica scene, was even worse than the scene I saw of the Antarctica scene ... loud, hammy, playing to back of one’s... ear canals????
LuPita2 said: "Lololzzz I will skip your novel response and just say this thread is about the Audiobook for the NYC production of Angels in America, which you did not see and you see to be complaining about. No need for your opinion, you can move on now."
To be fair, it is mostly the same performers giving virtually the same performance they have in the NTL taping. Discussing those performances seems to be fair in relation to this audio recording.
I do agree that Garfield's performance was... very big on screen. I am not sure how it played in a larger theatre, but close up it did feel larger than life. My CD of this audio recording arrives tomorrow. I will be curious to see how it compares to the performance captured on video. In any case, I am still quite excited to receive it.