They've pulled it off again! Almost exactly a year ago the team at tpt (Theatre Project Tokyo), led by the renowned American director Robert Allan Ackerman, got Tokyo theater in 2003 off to a great start with their stunningly moving production of "Bent," cast entirely from the young actors who took part in an experimental workshop Ackerman had run at tpt. Now the director is back at Benisan Pit, tpt's unique theatrical space in downtown Morishita.
With "Angels in America," the team is again taking up the challenge of a profoundly moving work -- but this time one with a sweep as grand as the focus of "Bent" is personal. Theater-lovers should make every effort to see this production.
This play's accolades alone are impressive. Subtitled "A Gay Fantasia on National Themes," it brought its American playwright, Tony Kushner, a Pulitzer Prize in 1993. Following its world premiere in San Francisco in 1991, and subsequent move to Broadway, it became the first play to win a Tony Award in two consecutive years, after being staged there in two separate halves in 1993 and '94. It was also selected as one of the 20 most important plays of the 20th century by London's National Theatre in 2000. And just last month, an TV movie adaptation of the play, directed by Mike Nichols and starring Al Pacino and Meryl Streep, won the Golden Globe for Best Movie/Miniseries Made for Television.