"We want to introduce the play to an audience who only knows it from the movie," Mr. Gabay said.
"Opening Audience" introduces the play's conflict, "Inner Palace" shows the king meeting his queen(s), and in "Outer Audience" the army is dispatched.
I was less happy about the General Introduction, mainly because it seeks less to introduce the play to those who don't know it than to show to fellow scholars that the editors are up to date with recent writings about it.
Leonard Auclair balances political gamesmanship and holy indignation to impart a courtly and compassionate air to the fairly interesting role of the Cardinal, and Burt Edwards is commanding in his necessary role as aide to the Cardinal, and his most unnecessary turn as an emcee who introduces the play, vaudeville-style, "for your amusement".
After the Chorus introduces the play with a lofty call for a "Muse of Fire," we descend into the back rooms of power, where "a kind of cat and mouse game" (as Alan Dessen, a leading scholar of Shakespearean staging, calls it) between King and Church begins to unfold.
She also promises that she'll be there every night to introduce the play!
Because an AIDS diagnosis -- still sounding like a death sentence when Kushner introduced the play -- is now a chronic illness for the most part and because AIDS is so inherent to the drama, the "dated" tag could seem to hover over Angels in America as Prior's Angel floats ominously over him.
In one line, the reviewer has introduced the play, noted the play is a "classic" and told the reader it is a popular musical.
The director Michael Kahn employs an actor portraying Williams himself to introduce the plays, a faintly apologetic gesture.
