The star-spangled set for “Angels in America” at Theater West End in Sanford is draped in America’s red, white and blue. This is an America where the powerful are corrupt, using their influence to benefit themselves. Where the marginalized are disparaged. Where the average citizen struggles. Where society’s divisions feel impossible to overcome.

An old rabbi sums up America’s fractured  soul at the top of Tony Kushner’s masterwork: “The melting pot … where no one melted.”

Does any of this sound familiar?

Here’s the thing, though. “Angels in America” is set in 1985 — that’s 41 years ago now. My, how far we haven’t come.

Co-directors Gabriel Garcia and Hunter Rogers have created a production that is beautiful to behold, acted with emotional precision and engrossing as both a look at American history and an indictment of America today.

The story follows diverse characters, whose tales intertwine. Prior Walter (Ben Gaetanos, wryly emotional without being maudlin) has just been diagnosed with AIDS. His boyfriend Louis (Jeffrey Correia, bracingly self-aware and smartly avoiding self-pity) can’t cope, but nurse Belize (Zoa Starlight Glows, who brings refreshing calmness and authority to a role often played solely for laughs) provides support.

Lawyer Roy Cohn (Thomas Muniz, center) holds court with his friends (Celestino Di Cicco and Lauren Elizabeth Reed) in the Theater West End production of “Angels in America, part 1: Millennium Approaches.” (Courtesy Damion Cornett Sr. via Theater West End)

Meanwhile, powerful lawyer Roy Cohn (Thomas Muniz, perfectly fueled by self-confidence and rage) faces his own medical crisis as he tries to school young colleague Joe Pitt (Celestino De Cicco, whose face beautifully shows the pain of his inner conflict) in the ways of the world.

Joe’s wife, Harper (Lauren Elizabeth Reed, who personifies the self-preserving need to escape with crystalline clarity) is troubled by her husband’s struggles. Joe’s mother, Hannah (Janine Papin, with perfectly pitched sour conviction), is on her way to intervene.

And then there’s the Angel (Ame Livingston, radiant, serene and authoritative). Yes, an angel. This sweeping epic combines the reality of living with the metaphysical that peers into our psyche. Part of the beauty of Rogers and Garcia’s direction is how they mesh these two facets of the play and build the tension in the various characters’ journeys.

“Unfriendly Mormon” Hannah Pitt (Janine Panin) has a scowl for her friend (Ame Livingston) in the Theater West End production of “Angels in America, part 1: Millennium Approaches.” (Courtesy Damion Cornett Sr. via Theater West End)

Beauty is also found in that set design, by Garcia and Derek Critzer. Black-and-white photos of couples and protesters excercising their constitutional rights frame a centerpiece of newspapers busy stirring up fear with headlines that scream “Rare Cancer Seen in Homosexuals.”

But the best decision is having actors Brenna Arden and Ayanna Lúa physically turn the rotating set. I hope for their sake, it’s not as backbreaking as they make it work, but it perfectly encapsulates the grind of trying to make progress but constantly circling back to where we stay stuck. Arden and Lúa also frame some scenes, watching the action and mutely commenting on it with their posture and facial expressions. I’d welcome even more of that.

Belize (Zoa Starlight Glows, right) cheers Prior (Ben Gaetanos) in the Theater West End production of “Angels in America, part 1: Millennium Approaches.” (Courtesy Damion Cornett Sr. via Theater West End)

Bryan Jager’s inventive projections, Critzer’s lighting and the sound design from Garcia and Jager that underscores the action like a film. All contribute to the sense that something epic is happening. But in another win by the directors, on Theater West End’s relatively small stage they make the epic simultaneously intimate. The expansive story of the American zeitgeist is also intensely personal.

The play dares to ask us in our ongoing political, sexual, economic divide, who are the patriots? Who are the enemies? Who have elements of both?

As Roy Cohn is wont to say: “Only in America.”

Harper Pitt (Lauren Elizabeth Reed) is trying to escape her life in the Theater West End production of “Angels in America, part 1: Millennium Approaches.” (Courtesy Damion Cornett Sr. via Theater West End)

Follow me at facebook.com/matthew.j.palm or email me at mpalm@orlandosentinel.com. Find more entertainment news and reviews at orlandosentinel.com/entertainment or sign up to receive our weekly emailed Entertainment newsletter.

‘Angels in America’

What: ‘Millennium Approaches,’ the first half of Tony Kushner’s two-part play
Length: 3:15, including two intermissions
Where: Theater West End, 115 W. 1st St. in Sanford
When: Through Feb. 1
Cost: $42-$52. Ticket packages for both the first and second parts of the play are available, with savings of up to $20
Info: theaterwestend.com

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2026/01/27/angels-in-america-part-1-review/