Angels in America ending

Since there's a separate thread for the MFL ending I'll just talk about my reaction to the Angels in America ending. The more I think of it the more cheaply sentimental it feels. Only Roy Cohn actually dies of AIDS by the end of the 8 hour play, and he is by far the most vile character of the play. While it is true to history (Roy Cohn did die of AIDS), I feel the fact that only the villain of the died of AIDS rings false.

It's not the way AIDS worked/works. AIDS killed the very best people and the very worst (like Cohn) and all the shades of gray in between. It didn't discriminate. I feel like a more realistic ending would have been to have Joe or Harper also die of AIDS. Or Louis. Simply having the most evil character of the play die of AIDS simply isn't true to life.

Anyone else feel this way?

TotallyEffed said: "The ending is perfect."

How is it perfect? It's feel good for sure. But by making Cohn die and Prior live there's this idea that AIDS killed Cohn because he was a bad person and the "angels" saved Prior because he was a good person. And that's not true to life at all.

GeorgeandDot said: "Roy Cohn dies because Roy Cohn died. Prior lives because it's nice to have a hopeful ending that doesn't end with the gay guy dying. This show opened during the Aids crisis and there was something incredibly uplifting about the ending. It showed that Aids isn't a death sentence. Maybe Prior died 6 months later or maybe five years later or maybe he's still around today, but it ends with him fighting. I'm happy that the play ends with life instead of death. When the play premiered there was so much death everywhere. We didn't need to see that. We needed to see life and that's what Kushner gives us.

Also, why would Harper die of Aids? She doesn't even have Aids. Neither does Joe or Louis."

Well that's a weakness in the structure IMO that AIDS is concentrated in the saint (Prior) and the villain (Roy) and evades the characters with the shades of gray (Joe, Louis, Harper, Belize). When I saw the revival recently I thought it was cheap and sentimental to have Prior live after "visiting" heaven. By doing so Kushner made Perestroika in particular a morality play.

It just feels so false. Hell, last night after I went to the Encores! performance of Grand Hotel I went and saw some clips of the OBC and was saddened to find out that David Carroll died of AIDS before he got to make the OBCR.

You only have to look at the creators of Chorus Line to know how much the theater world was ravaged by AIDS.

AIDS killed so many amazing wonderful creative people.

Scarywarhol said: "But Prior is the only other character with AIDS in the play, and I don't mind it at all. We don't know how much longer he makes it, and I don't know how bearable the play would be without some kind of hope at the end of so many hours "

This is very true, I think many people underestimate how much Prior has worsened over those 5 years. The stage directions suggest a very debilitated man that needs a cane to walk even if he's just in his mid-thirties. The mere fact that he wishes to be still living the following year implies that he doesn't have the certainty of being there, because it's not like his condition has improved. Prior doesn't die, but the fact that Kushner specified how worse he got in a few years might also suggest that he's not going to live much longer. Ivo van Hove cut the finale because he thought it was too much of an American feel good happy ending, but it is more than that. It's a very hopeful moment, but not a guarantee that this hope will be a reality for the protagonist.

Updated On: 3/24/18 at 11:16 PM

The play is not a tragedy.

The play is not a polemic, angry call to action like The Normal Heart that wants to yell “LOOK WHAT YOU ARE DOING TO US.”

It is a gay fantasia. There is a reason Kushner made that the subtitle.

The play is about perseverance and life, and most importantly the need for community in order to persevere. Roy Cohn dies alone and stripped of everything he stole and achieved, the perfect end to a life lived with malevolent selfishness. Joe’s own selfishness, his pursuit of his own happiness and success at the expense of others, similarly makes him alone. The characters that made sacrifices and selfless decisions, even if it took them time to reach those decisions, persevere.

It was written in a time when the gay community needed assurance that they would persevere, that they would have more life.

“It’s not realistic!” is a silly complaint to lodge at a play that features angels, spirits, and shared visions.

Updated On: 3/25/18 at 11:11 AM

Kad said: "The play is not a tragedy.

The play is not a polemic, angry call to action like The Normal Heart that wants to yell “LOOK WHAT YOU ARE DOING TO US.”

It is a gay fantasia. There is a reason Kushner made that the subtitle.

The play is about perseverance and life, and most importantly the need for community in order to persevere. Roy Cohn dies alone and stripped of everything he stole and achieved,the perfect end to a life lived with malevolent selfishness. Joe’s own selfishness, his pursuit of his own happiness and success at the expense of others, similarly makes him alone. The characters that made sacrifices and selfless decisions, even if it took them time to reach those decisions, persevere.

It was written in a time when the gay community needed assurance that they would persevere, that they would have more life.

“It’s not realistic!” is a silly complaint to lodge at a play that features angels, spirits, and shared visions."

Love your interpretation of the ending!! However just curious, How was Louis selfless at the end?

Also didnt Joe's mother accept him in the end though?

To reduce Angels in America to being a play about AIDS is to fundamentally misunderstand the play. Angels is ultimately a play about...well, everything, but it's largely about hope and perseverance and forgiveness. Roy Cohn may be a villain (and he was in real life), but we also see him experience a real fear of dying and he is confronted directly by the terrible things he's done through the vision of Ethel Rosenberg. While the play is centered around the AIDS crisis, in some ways it's the least important piece of the puzzle when examining what it's really about at its core.

At the end of the play, Prior is 35 and walking with a cane. The disease has not taken him, but it has certainly taken FROM him.

And Roy is a complex villain. In his final moments, we see him desperate and alone and maybe even remorseful. To label his complexities as simply villainous does a disservice to Kushner’s writing. Which did a service to a true villain.

And then there’s the ultimate point: AIA is not an AIDS play. AIDS is certainly a part of it, but it is not its overwhelming idea. AIA is also about being an American. Whether you’re sick or not. About your outrage and disgust with America and your gratitude for its gifts. About dying from being American as much as dying from having AIDS.

If the 8 hours hang on the balance of Prior’s dying, the point has been missed entirely. The play isn’t about dying. It’s about living.

poisonivy2 said: "Kad said: "Roy Cohn dies alone and stripped of everything he stole and achieved,the perfect end to a life lived with malevolent selfishness. Joe’s own selfishness, his pursuit of his own happiness and success at the expense of others, similarly makes him alone. The characters that made sacrifices and selfless decisions, even if it took them time to reach those decisions, persevere."



How did Louis "make sacrifices and selfless decisions"? He abandoned Prior and embarked on an affair with Joe. Louis is as selfish as Joe.”



Louis returns, having gone through a trial of his own.

He gets faced with the truth of who Joe is, and what he himself could become, and makes the correct choice.

stepintime2 said: "poisonivy2 said: "Simply having the most evil character of the play die of AIDS simply isn't true to life."



So strange, I was definitely expecting a play whose subtitle contains the phrase "a gay fantasia" to be true to life. Haven't we all literally wrestled with an angel to gain entry to heaven in order reject death and keep on living? Hasn't at least one of us taken too many valium and ended up hallucinating into someone's dream or dreamt our way into someone else's hallucination?

Remember when you last went to the mormon visiting center and the dummies came to life and walked out?

"

Maybe I misspoke. I don't want Angels in America to be a kind of ultra-realistic drama. I do however think that ALL great plays need to be emotionally true. And something about the optimism of the ending with Prior's new little family feels forced and sentimental. Yes the "great work" needs to continue but in NYC in the 1990's the "great work" was being done by people who all had experienced severe loss. I don't know of a single person who lived in NYC in the 1990's who didn't know multiple people who had died of AIDS. Hell, I remember one year my mom did not have any sick days left because she donated them all to people in her office who were dying of AIDS.

It just feels that Kushner was trying to force a "happy" ending by juxtaposing Cohn's tormented death with Prior's new lease on life.

Kad said: "poisonivy2 said: "Kad said: "Roy Cohn dies alone and stripped of everything he stole and achieved,the perfect end to a life lived with malevolent selfishness. Joe’s own selfishness, his pursuit of his own happiness and success at the expense of others, similarly makes him alone. The characters that made sacrifices and selfless decisions, even if it took them time to reach those decisions, persevere."



How did Louis "make sacrifices and selfless decisions"? He abandoned Prior and embarked on an affair with Joe. Louis is as selfish as Joe.”



Louis returns, having gone through a trial of his own.

He gets faced with the truth of who Joe is, and what he himself could become, and makes the correct choice."

This makes Joe's fate sound really depressing and cynical. Kind of also goes against the whole point of the play I feel.

Fanboy99 said: "This makes Joe's fate sound really depressing and cynical. Kind of also goes against the whole point of the play I feel."

Joe's fate has been given a lot of discussion since the plays premiered. Unlike the other central characters, there's no real resolution for him or even a particular hint of one.