I think he has enough work, not sure if he has enough fans, to merit his own thread instead of our mini-discussion happening in the "What are you reading part 4" thread.

I've seen Angel's in America and bought the box set. It really is a beautiful, and dare I say, magical play. He is able to weave these stories together that are on the one hand not anything like the real word, mystical, yet, on the other hand, it is completely about what it means to be alive in America. I really believe it is the best play ever written.

That said, I still haven't read Homebody/Kabul, nor have I seen it performed anywhere around me. I've got so much on my list to read that it's difficult for me to throw in others. If I see the play at the 1/2 book store, then I'll pick up a copy and throw it on my list. I love Kushner, but I also like reading as many different authors as possible.

Have you read any of his one-acts or other types of literature?

In regards to Sam Shepard, they just performed Curse of the Starving Class at my undergrad. It was wonderful.

I like O'Neill, but I feel the same way about him as I do about Williams: if you trim about 1/3 of every play, they'd be far better. Almost invariably, I find them to be overly repetitive and relentless. It's hard for me to care about a character when I know full well what will happen through the telegraphing of plot, yet the playwright chooses to belabor the emotions leading up to it. Once you take something to 11 in the first hour, you can't really build to a climax that engages me in any kind of profound way. Of course, I've debated that in innumerable classes and productions and have almost been lynched on more than one occasion.

There is so much to admire in Angels in America. I recently listened to a Webast of a question and answer session with Kushner and very much sympathized with a man who stepped nervously up to the microphone and said something like, "Mr. Kushner, after seeing a recent production of your plays, I fully expected to walk in here this morning to find a ten foot giant at the podium." Kushner frequently mentions his love of Brecht and from him he has learned to explore and exploit the magic of live theater like no other playwright I know. There are things that happen onstage during a production of Angels that simply can't be matched by any other artistic medium. 2001 is often called "pure cinema"; Kushner, I think, is the closest we've come to "pure theater."

Okay, enough of the hyperbolic ramblings . . .

I've read most of the plays included in the Death and Taxes: Hydriotaphia collection, and a copy of A Bright Room Called Day is sitting on my bedside "to read" pile. I also saw a recent production of The Illusion, his adaptation of Pierre Corneille's play, which is fairly standard, but ridiculously entertaining, Restoration farce until the closing moments, during which we get a moment something like the Angel's descent at the end of Millennium Approaches. Good stuff.

I'm just beginning work on my doctoral dissertation, which is a study of contemporary American literature and the problems of the political left. Angels will be the focus of the penultimate chapter, and it's beginning to look like Homebody/Kabul will feature prominently in the conclusion.

O'Neill's reputation seems to be slipping, which is a shame, I think. Aside from the Kevin Spacey Iceman, I can't think of any noise-making O'Neill productions in recent years. I'm not sure if that's because his plays aren't quite as "timeless" as his champions have always suggested, or if there is just too much dissonance between our postmodern sensibilities arnd his earnestness. His plays tend to open up emotional wounds in the first act and flay them for the next two hours. We tend to like emotional distance these days. Still, though, for my money A Long Day's Journey into Night and The Iceman Cometh are as good as it gets.

Shepard is securely in my top 10 of American playwrights on the strength of Buried Child alone. Add True West, Curse of the Starving Class, and The Tooth of Crime to the list and you're left with one of the best of all time.

Just in case you missed the news, there's revival of Long Day's Journey due on Broadway in the next few months...

Cast--
James: Brian Dennehey
Mary: Vanessa Redgrave
Jamie: Phillip Seymour Hoffman
Edmund: Robert Sean Leonard

I'm not one who gets much chance to travel anymore... But I do hope it gets taped by PBS or someone...

As for Kushner, I would agree that Angels has a very strong case for best play of the 90s, but I'm not sure whether I'd go beyond that...

BTW: I played Roy Cohn in an unauthorized "acting class" production, back when it was first written... The second half was very different than the final version...

I don't suppose you still have a copy of the script . . .

Roy's a pretty meaty character. I imagine that he's a lot of fun to play. Last I heard, Al Pacino was set to play him in the version that Mike Nichols is filming for Showtime.

Two hours? I don't know that I've ever seen an O'Neill production run less than three, with the exception of his shorter works like The Hairy Ape.

I did see the production of <A Moon for the Misbegotten with Cherry Jones, Gabriel Byrne and Roy Dotrice a couple of years ago. Fine production, although IMO suffers from the same problems I personally have with O'neill's work. It's not so much flaying the wounds for two hours as beating a dead horse for two hours. I say this as someone who's going to the understudy audition for Long Day's Journey Into Night on Friday.

To get back to the thread, though, I consistently mean to acquaint myself with Kushner more, but never seem to do it. Too many plays and books to read, not enough time, you know? I do think Angels in America is a masterpiece, though. I'm interested to see what they end up doing with the film version.

I don't know much about Vanessa Redgrave or Robert Sean Leonard, but I do know that Brian Dennehey stared in the Steppenwolf production last year. Supposibly he was unbelievable as James and I would guess PSH would make a great Jamie. Sounds like I need to make a trip to NYC.