Roy Cohn was one mean son of a bitch. As Joseph McCarthy's number-one hatchet man, he destroyed lives in the name of democracy, pursuing Communists, leftists and homosexuals with a vitriol that matched, if not exceeded, that of his boss.
He was also gay.
This sick paradox alone should make him the most nuanced and interesting character in "Millennium Approaches," the Pulitzer Prize-winning first half of Tony Kushner's "Angels in America." And as far as the text goes, he is. Cohn is a gooey morass of contradictions--the "polestar of human evil," as one character describes him, but also a strangely sympathetic man who is so consumed by his hate that the audience cannot help but pity him his bitter myopia.
But as portrayed by Jonathan Hadary in the national tour of "Angels," which drew sellout crowds to Page Auditorium this weekend, he is little more than a high-strung Jewish queen with a penchant for sit-com histrionics.
In a performance that seemed to lack any notion of nuance, Hadary camped it up with his Cohn, seemingly unaware of the fact that, according to both history and Kushner's text itself, Cohn was anything but effeminate. To suggest otherwise--as Hadary's performance did so unconvincingly--is to forget that the very reason Cohn could do what he did was that people did not know he was gay. There may have been rumors, but one does not become one of Joe McCarthy's top henchmen by all but shouting, "I'm here! I'm queer!"
Hadary, however, seemed to be more concerned with getting laughs than with doing justice to his character, and at least one can say that he what he lacks in depth he makes up for in comic timing. At least.
But all was not lost. With only a couple of exceptions, the other members of the cast did justice to Kushner's tender, funny script. Todd Weeks, as Prior Walter, did wonderful things with his tender combination of campy abandon and AIDS-inflected grimness. As the "prophet" of the play, so designated by the Angel who visits him with an orgasmic effect, Weeks avoided the easy trap of preachiness into which a less careful actor could have fallen.
Nowhere was he better, though, than with his best friend Belize, a black ex-drag queen played with insouciant abandon by Reg Flowers. Flowers' Belize, the six-foot-eight quintessence of Miss Thang, was the comic delight of the play. His scenes with Weeks were among the least forced and most genuinely funny of the entire seven hours, and he provided a welcome respite from the misplaced one-liners that needlessly pervaded the play.
As Louis Ironson, Douglas Harmsen did little damage, but neither did he shine in what, like that of Roy Cohn, is potentially among the richest roles in the play. Unfortunately Harmsen seemed to base his Louis on only two facts about the character--his gayness and Jewishness. In the process, he created a walking, talking stereotype that was equal parts Long Island and Fire Island, with little room left for anything in between.
It is unlikely that playwright Kushner, gay and Jewish himself, saw Louis as so two-dimensional, and it was disturbing for someone who had read and enjoyed the play to see Harmsen create such a flat, if nevertheless amusing, character.
Other characters suffered similar fates in the hands of the national tour's actors. As Harper Pitt, Sarah Underwood seemed to grunt instead of speak, turning most of her lines--some of which were quite funny, through no effort of her own--into monotonous declarative statements. Harper's husband Joe, played by Rick Holmes, did a fine job with flimsy material.
Indeed, Joe is Kushner's Achilles heel in the play; the playwright seems unable to forgive Joe for his Republicanism, his doubts about his sexuality and his (platonic) relationship with Roy Cohn. Thus, he turns what has the potential to be a fine study in conflict into a morality tale about what happens to closety Republicans.
Despite this reviewer's disappointment with the acting, the play itself was quite enjoyable, if not perhaps as perfect as many contemporary theater critics seem to think. If you can afford the 70 bucks and seven hours, go see it. If not, read it and create your own image of the characters--no actor can match that. And if that's still not enough, just wait for the movie. It'll be directed by Robert Altman and should be released in the next few years.
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