And as for Kirk's Prior --
Kirk simply would/could never be a good Prior IMO (but maybe he could play a decent Joe in some production; he was fine as the gay blind one in "Love! Valour!").
If you read and/or see interviews with Kushner about what/who inspired the character, so much of Prior came out of the gay guerilla activist movements of the 80s -- mainly ACT-UP, which he was a part of, but also Queer Nation, later.
Back when AIDS was spreading through the gay community like wildfire in the early 80s and the government (Reagan and the Federal government, as well as Koch and the local government) was ignoring the crisis while thousands were dying, these organizations sprung up seemingly overnight and took to the streets.
While the founders of ACT-UP were, in some cases, members of the so-called "gay elite" (eg, Larry Kramer, also founder of GMHC), most of the members (those putting their lives and bodies on the line in major controversial demonstrations) were not career activists, but instead, everyday gay people -- the non-"elite," middle-to-lower income, formerly firmly apolitical folks who were ANGRY that they and/or their friends were dying at an alarming rate and none of the powers-that-be seemed to care or were treating the emergency without the urgency that it demanded. Most had never participated in any form of political activism before and -- understand I was part of this movement, knew its members and don't say this pejoratively -- had spent most of their time, before AIDS took over their lives, worrying about what clubs were opening, what sales were happening and the latest gossip from the bathhouses.
Most were not the gay doctors/lawyers/stockbroker-types, they were cater-waiters (which was Prior's occupation in an earlier draft of the play), nurses, florists, teachers, drag queens -- those, for the most part, who were the most desperate and the most powerless (historically, revolutions are not led by the upper classes, but by either students and/or those who have the least to lose and who don't have any stake in the success of the power base).
AIDS lit a fire under the gay masses in the 80s and suddenly these people -- mostly 20-, 30- and 40-something, formerly superficial, carefree, party-goers -- were turned into an army of in-your-face, stop-at-nothing, strident and strong-willed activists. The character of Prior Walter, as Kushner created him, embodies that movement.
Spinella's Prior captured a certain brand of openly gay, unapologetically effeminate, but incredibly passionate and strong-willed gay man who was at the forefront of the ACT-UP movement (I knew MANY of them myself). Speaking in terms of cultural and literary criticism, he was the kind of gay male character that was often (always?) dismissed as comic relief in previous dramatic works on stage, television or screen as comic relief, as well as neutered sexually (unless depicted as a pervert) and emotionally, who's biggest concern was the next sale at Barney's or who might win the next drag queen competition. With "Angels in America," in a sheer literary sense, Kushner reclaims this formerly stereotypical character as one one worthy of serious critical analysis (I await the "Kushnerian" study comparing and contrasting his use and elevation of Prior Walter in "Angels in America," with the similarly reclaimed stereotypical protagonist, the black maid, Caroline Thibodeaux, from his sublime libretto from the musical, written with composer Jeanine Tesori, "Caroline, or Change").
However, in "Angels in America" Prior Walter is a fully-dimensional character in a long-term committed relationship, who sees AIDS upend his world, causes his lover to leave him, makes him terrified and makes him angry and lonely, but ultimately, in the face of everything, causes him to find himself emboldened to try and change the world around him. He's determined to fight for his life and for others like him and courageously spread a message of hope. Prior and his compatriots' know that their lives have meaning, that no matter what the government or anyone else says or how they try to stop them, that they will not be swept under the rug, that "they won't die secret deaths more," and they will live on in spite of their enemies and this virus and survive and coninue to thrive for tomorrow.
On the most simple and external level, as Kushner wrote him and Spinella played him, Prior is a "Sissy," for want of a better term -- ostensibly an effeminate gay man that could be disregarded and not taken seriously. However, in the world that Kushner creates in the play (as well as within the activist movement in the 80s), that derogatory stereotype does not have that meaning. Rather than "sissy" or effeminate" automatically connotating that someone is weak or scared or impotent or lacking in any power, in the reality of New York in the 80s, as well as in Kushner's "Angels in America," Prior (and those like him) are seen and depicted as a "hero" -- in the most classical sense of the term. They have a prophecy and a vision for a world that desperately needs one, as well as having a courage and sense of determination so fierce that it allows them (even their sometimes somewhat weakened state) to be willing to take on the police, the politicians, the powerbrokers, the naysaying homphobes in the streets (and in the case of Prior) the ineffectual angels and even, an absent God (whom Prior discovers has abandoned the world) up in heaven, if that's what it takes to achieve "more life" and lead to receiving some form of blessing and an ultimate sense of salvation.
Now, looking back at the film, Kirk seemed not to understand one iota of any of that history. Kirk played Prior as ..... um ........ I don't know, as a very straight guy trying to come off as just an annoying, whiny, spoiled queen? I never even GOT any semblance of whatever Kirk's interpretation was (and, yes, I've seen other successful ways to play Prior than Spinella's interpretation -- Kirk's wasn't one of them). There was no real internal logic to Kirk's Prior -- I STILL have no idea what he thought he was doing. That this -- the single most coveted role of every actor 20 to 45 of this generation -- went to someone so miscast and who even after that was still so unprepared and under-researched is a bit disturbing (among other things, the Threshold of Revelations scene was an utter embarassment that left me and several friends of mine shocked in anger -- honestly, is there ANYONE who would believe from that performance that Kirk's Prior was a former drag queen????).
Beyond that, and more importantly though, Kirk and Nichols undercut the allegory of the heaven scenes and the overall sense of redemption one SHOULD feel by the end of of Perestroika. It was missing for me in the film -- yet, I can STILL feel Spinella's blessing at the end as Prior from the stage production a decade later.
Perhaps, that's simply a case of the magic of the theatre ........
P.S.
It occurs to me that perhaps the fact that Nichols and his entire cast were straight, while Wolfe and half of the original stage cast was openly gay has some bearing on the issues I've raised. Not entirely sure about that (I have my ideas). But, I would hope that the next time a play subtitled "A Gay Fantsaia on National Themes" is filmed that PERHAPS somebody unafraid of the big bad "GAY" issue makes an effort to inform the director and the actors portraying the gay characters when and where they are screwing up a masterpiece.
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
Updated On: 6/8/05 at 05:36 AM
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