what theater can achieve when gifted playwrights take on the world

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/30/03 at 10:12am

Good article analyzing the impact of "Angels in America" 10 years ago, and the promise it held at the time, from the Boston Globe.
Link

[KB]

Posted: 11/30/03 at 10:15am

We just posted on the same topic... This article put it brilliantly. We need more risk-taking producers out there, and I don't mean like Rosie.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/30/03 at 10:15am

Great minds think similarly, KB.

[Rob]

Posted: 11/30/03 at 10:22am

Riedel made an interesting point that the lack of gifted plays on Broadway was a combination of both producers not willing to take risks, and starving, talented writers turning to the more lucrative worlds of TV and Film. I tend to agree with this theory, and think that it'll take a few good examples to encourage such risk-taking again both for writers, and producers.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 11/30/03 at 10:26am

But, if you look, you can find them on stage. Kushner at the Public right now. Paula Vogel's latest. In fact, The Long Christmas Ride Home makes for something of a smaller scale, more personal companion piece to Angels in America.

I do think writers are doing great things, but not particularly on Broadway. When Angels rolled into town it was in response to a very particular, repressive point in time. Not only was it going to be great, and epic, but it seemed CRAZY to take on the Reagan era at that time. It was heady and exhilerating.

Not surprisingly, entertainment (the opiate of the masses) was quick on its heels to quiet everybody down and keep them from thinking. It's a tale as old as time.

Updated On: 11/30/03 at 10:26 AM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 11/30/03 at 11:37am

I've said it before, I'll say it again. I enjoyed Vogel's The Long Christmas Ride Home, however it passed a certain point where I felt as though I were receiving a didactic lecture on AIDS, rather than a "companion piece" to Angels in America.

I'd be interested in seeing its New York incarnation, however, to see if any changes have been made to the script. I'm not a terribly huge Vogel fan to begin with (however, I am a huge Kushner fan, go figure).

[Corine2]

Posted: 11/30/03 at 11:42am

There are many good plays playing now!
I Am My Own Wife
Caroline Or Change
The Violet Hour
Take Me Out
Nothing But The Truth- Brilliant and powerful play! Updated On: 11/30/03 at 11:42 AM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 11/30/03 at 2:40pm

What constitutes a "good" play?