# Tony Kushner Born July 16, 1956 in Manhattan; raised in Lake Charles, Louisiana. American playwright and screenwriter whose two-part play ***Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes*** (1990-1992) is the **defining American theatrical work of the AIDS era** — and one of the few American plays of the past half-century to win both a Pulitzer Prize and dual Tony Awards for its two parts. ## Angels in America (1990-1992) The play is structured in two full-length parts — ***Millennium Approaches*** (premiered 1990) and ***Perestroika*** (premiered 1992) — together running approximately seven hours. The action interweaves multiple characters: a closeted Mormon Republican lawyer, his Valium-addicted wife, a gay couple navigating AIDS diagnosis, and **[[Roy Cohn]]** (the historical Trump-1.0-era right-wing operator and longtime closeted gay man, dying of AIDS). The play uses these intersecting lives to address: - **The AIDS crisis** and the Reagan-era state abandonment of LGBTQ Americans - **American religiosity** — Mormonism, Judaism, and queer spirituality - **The Reagan-era right-wing political coalition** — Cohn as the historical figure embodying its hypocrisies - **National themes of progress, decline, and the relationship between marginalized communities and mainstream American power** **Awards and significance:** - **Pulitzer Prize for Drama** (1993, *Millennium Approaches*) - **Tony Award for Best Play** (1993, *Millennium Approaches*; 1994, *Perestroika*) - ***Angels in America*** (2003 HBO miniseries) — directed by Mike Nichols, starring Al Pacino as Cohn, Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson, and Jeffrey Wright. Won 11 Emmy Awards and 5 Golden Globes — the most Emmys ever won by a single program - **The play is now in continuous high-school and college production** across the United States and abroad, with major Broadway revivals in 2018 and London productions in 2017 ## Other Major Work - ***Caroline, or Change*** (2003) — musical, Tony nomination - ***Munich*** (2005) — Steven Spielberg film, Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay - ***Lincoln*** (2012) — Steven Spielberg film, Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay - ***West Side Story*** (2021) — Steven Spielberg film, Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay - ***The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures*** (2009) ## Place in the Vault Kushner is the **defining American playwright of the AIDS era** and one of the most consequential American dramatists of the past half-century. *Angels in America*'s sustained presence in American theatrical and educational programming — including its recurring appearance on state-and-local school book-ban and curriculum-restriction target lists — makes it one of the most-contested texts in contemporary American culture-war politics. --- ## See Also - [[Queer Liberation Ecosystem]] - [[Queer Liberation Timeline]] - [[AIDS Crisis]]