Theatre News Wire

Court Theatre Artistic Director Charles Newell and Executive Director Stephen J. Albert present Tony Kushner's Angels in America, directed by Artistic Director Charles Newell. Angels in America: Millennium Approaches and Angels in America: Perestroika will run simultaneously March 30 - June 3, 2012 at Court Theatre, 5535 S. Ellis Avenue.

Angels in America features Eddie Bennett (Louis Ironson), Mary Beth Fisher (Angel), Heidi Kettenring (Harper), Rob Lindley (Prior), Geoff Packard (Joseph Porter Pitt), Michael Pogue (Belize), Hollis Resnik (Hannah) and Larry Yando (Roy Cohn).

"The Great Work Begins." The year is 1985: Ronald Reagan has just been reelected to a second term, and the deadly AIDS epidemic is at its height in New York City. Tony Kushner's two-part epic historical drama captures the lives of the HIV-positive Prior; Louis, his lover who abandons him; Joe, a closeted gay Mormon; his Valium-addicted wife Harper; Roy Cohn, a notorious lawyer from the McCarthy hearings, dying of AIDS; Belize, his African-American nurse; Hannah, Joe's mother from Utah; and the Angel, a terrifyingly beautiful herald of the apocalypse. As these characters discover, confront, and seduce each other during a time of death, hypocrisy, and tumultuous change, Kushner summons a restless pastiche of the historical and the supernatural, the theological and the political-all told with surging theatricality by a company of eight actors. Having directed Kushner's Caroline, or Change and The Illusion, Court's Artistic Director Charles Newell will direct Millennium Approaches and a newly-revised Perestroika in repertory performance, giving Court audiences the unique opportunity to experience Kushner's Pulitzer Prize-winning magnum opus in its magnificent entirety.

Eddie Bennett (Louis Ironson) was last seen in Mary at the Goodman Theatre; Bennett's Court Credits include Titus Andronicus directed by Charles Newell. Mary Beth Fisher's (Angel) whose past collaborations at Court Theatre under Charlie Newell's direction include Three Tall Women (Jeff Award Nomination) The Year of Magical Thinking (Jeff Award for Solo Performance), The Wild Duck, Arcadia, The Glass Menagerie, Travesties, and The Importance of Being Earnest; Fisher was also in Sean Graney's production of What the Butler Saw at Court. Heidi Kettenring (Harper) has appeared at Court in Travesties, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Guys and Dolls; recent Chicago credits include Sense and Sensibility at Northlight, and Hairspray at the Marriott Lincolnshire. Rob Lindley (Prior) has appeared at Court Theatre in Caroline, or Change, Carousel, and Wild Duck. Lindley recently appeared in Candide at the Goodman, the long-running Oh, Coward! at Writers' Theatre, and Cabaret at Drury Lane Oak Brook. Geoff Packard (Joseph Porter Pitt) recently received the Best Actor in a Musical Jeff Award for his performance in the title role of Goodman's Candide. Michael Pogue (Belize) was last seen at Court this fall in Seret Scott's Spunk, other Chicago credits include Radio Golf at Raven and Eclipse Theatre's production of Six Degrees of Separation. Hollis Resnik's (Hannah) many Court Theatre credits include Carousel, Titus Andronicus, and Man of la Mancha, among others. Resnick was most recently seen in Chicago Shakespeare's Follies as Carlotta Campion, and her performance in the Goodman's Candide earned her the 2011 Best Supporting Actress in a Musical Jeff Award. Larry Yando (Roy Cohn) was last seen at Court Theatre in Travesties directed by Charlie Newell; notable credits also include Taming of the Shrew at Chicago Shakespeare, A Christmas Carol at the Goodman, and Scar in the National Tour of The Lion King, among many others. Yando's performance as Pangloss in the Goodman's Candide earned him the 2011 Best supporting Actor in a Musical Jeff Award.