VideoGlenn Close, Jeremy O. Harris, Patti LuPone, More Perform Scenes From Angels in America October 8Proceeds from the starry benefit support amfAR.
By
Dan Meyer
October 08, 2020
The Great Work Begins: Scenes from Angels in America streams October 8, featuring Tony winners Patti LuPone, Glenn Close, Nikki M. James, and more Broadway stars performing scenes from Tony Kushner's Tony- and Pulitzer Prize–winning play. Check out a trailer above for the virtual benefit supporting amfAR.
Multiple performers share the roles of some characters, with Brian Tyree Henry, Andrew Rannells, and Paul Dano as Prior Walter; Lois Smith and Vella Lovell as Harper Pitt; and Jeremy O. Harris, S. Epatha Merkerson, and Larry Owens as Belize. The cast also includes Glenn Close as Roy Cohn, Brandon Uranowitz as Louis Ironson, Laura Linney as Hannah Pitt, and Nikki M. James, Patti LuPone, Linda Emond, and Daphne Rubin-Vega as the angels Lumen, Fluor, Phosphor, and Candle, respectively.
Also making an appearance are Kushner himself, Alan Cumming, Whoopi Goldberg, and Jake Gyllenhaal. Serving on the creative team for the performance are director Ellie Heyman, composer Ellis Ludwig-Leone,production designerPaul Tate dePoo III, andTBD Creative Media.
“In this time of COVID and national unrest, [the play's] themes of racism and government failings make it as relevant and resonant today as it was when it was first performed 30 years ago," says amfAR CEO Kevin Robert Frost. The selected scenes focus on the experience of living through a plague, reaching through suffering to find hope, and on America striving and failing to reach its ideals of freedom.
The performance begins at 8:30 PM ET on Broadway.com's YouTube. While free to watch, donations are encourage with proceeds going to the amfAR Fund to Fight COVID-19. For more information, visit TheGreatWorkBegins.org.
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