Angels in America extends a second time

Signature Theatre Company have announced a second extension for the first New York revival of Tony Kushner's Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, directed by Michael Greif.

The production, originally slated to run through to 19 Dec 2010 and extended once through to 30 Jan 2011, will now play an additional three weeks through to 20 Feb 2011.

Angels In America opens at the Peter Norton Space on 28 Oct 2010 following previews from 14 Sep 2010.

Millennium Approaches and Perestroika, the two parts of Angels In America, will begin alternating in repertory from the start of performances.

Angels In America: A Gay Fantasia On National Themes is set in late 1985 and early 1986, as the first wave of the AIDS epidemic in America is escalating and Ronald Reagan has been elected to a second term in the White House.

The play's two parts, Millennium Approaches and Perestroika, bring together a young gay man with AIDS and his frightened, unfaithful lover; a closeted Mormon lawyer and his valium-addicted wife; the infamous New York lawyer Roy Cohn; an African-American male nurse; a Mormon housewife from Utah; and a steel-winged, prophecy-bearing angel; as well as the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, an ancient rabbi, the world's oldest living Bolshevik and a Reagan administration functionary, among many others - all played by a company of eight actors.

The first New York revival of Angels In America, to be directed by Michael Greif, will star Robin Bartlett (Prelude to a Kiss, "Mad About You") as 'Hannah Pitt,' Christian Borle (Legally Blonde, Spamalot) as 'Prior Walter,' Bill Heck (The Orphans' Home Cycle, The Merchant of Venice, The Winter's Tale) as 'Joe Pitt,' Zoe Kazan (The Seagull, A Behanding in Spokane) as 'Harper Pitt,' Billy Porter (Smokey Joe's Café, Five Guys Named Moe) as 'Belize,' Zachary Quinto (Star Trek, "Heroes") as 'Louis Ironson,' Robin Weigert (Noises Off, The Good German, "Deadwood") as 'The Angel' and Frank Wood (Side Man, August: Osage County) as 'Roy Cohn.'

Scenic design is by Mark Wendland, costume design by Clint Ramos, lighting design by Ben Stanton and sound design by Ken Travis.

Angels In America was one of the most critically acclaimed and heralded plays of the 1990s and established Tony Kushner as a major new voice in world theatre. Frank Rich, The New York Times, praised it as "the most thrilling American play in years".

The plays were developed in productions in Los Angeles, San Francisco and London, before opening on Broadway in 1993. Part One: Millennium Approaches, opened 4 May 1993 at the Walter Kerr Theatre and Part Two: Perestroika, opened 23 Nov 1993, also at the Walter Kerr, with the two parts playing in repertory. Both parts of Angels In America won Tony Awards in 1993 and 1994 for Best Play and Millennium Approaches won the 1993 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Kushner adapted the plays for an HBO mini-series, directed by Mike Nichols, which premiered in 2003 and won Golden Globe and Emmy Awards for Best Miniseries.

Tony Kushner's (Playwright) plays include 'A Bright Room Called Day,' 'Angels in America, Parts One and Two,' 'Slavs!,' 'Homebody/Kabul' and 'The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures.' Kushner's awards include the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, two Tony Awards for Best Play, two Obie Awards for Best Play, an Arts Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the PEN/Laura Pels Award for a Mid-Career Playwright, a Spirit of Justice Award from the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders and a Cultural Achievement Award from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture.

Michael Greif's (Director) was nominated for Tony's for his helmship of 'Next to Normal, 'Grey Gardens' and 'Rent' and he is the director of the Broadway musical 'Next to Normal' currently playing at the Booth Theatre. Grief directed Kushner's 'The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures' at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. His many Off-Broadway credits include 'Landscape of the Body,' 'A Few Stout Individuals', 'Satellites' and 'Dogeaters' (Obie). Grief was the artistic director at California's La Jolla Playhouse from 1995-99.