Tony Kushner's two-part play (Millennium Approaches and Perestroika) — a Pulitzer Prize-winning epic drama about AIDS, American politics, and spiritual struggle in Reagan-era America.
American theatrical epic: Angels in America's achievement is combining the American political moment (AIDS crisis, Reagan conservatism, Roy Cohn's death from AIDS while denying his homosexuality) with formal theatrical ambition (theatrical magic, supernatural visitation, simultaneous scenes, seven-hour total runtime). Roy Cohn as character — the self-hating gay man who shaped McCarthyism, championed Reagan, and denied his AIDS diagnosis — is the most complex villain in American drama. The play defined American political theater and established AIDS as a topic for major dramatic treatment.
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