Lahr is a noted theatre critic and biographer. In this essay, he reviews a complete production of Angels in America marking the debut of Perestroika, the work's second segment. The critic praises the breadth of the play and lauds both Kushner and the cast of this production. Lahr terms the performance a victory for both the playwright and for the dramatic genre, proving "the transforming power of the imagination to turn devastation into beauty."

High on a hill in downtown Los Angeles, the thirty-six-year-old playwright Tony Kushner stood watching an usher urge the people outside the Mark Taper Forum to take their seats for the opening of' 'Angels in America," his two-part "gay fantasia on national themes." it was the premiere of the play's long-awaited second segment, "Perestroika," which was being performed, together with the first part, ' 'Millennium Approaches," in a seven-hour back-to-back marathon. "I never...