First Look At Andrew Garfield, Russell Tovey & The Cast Of The National Theatre’s Angels In America

While the first part of Tony Kushner’s two-part, Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes, Millennium Approaches, was first performed in San Francisco, it was the 1992 British National Theatre production which helped state the play’s claim to being something exceptional. It and it’s follow-up, Perestroika, went of to win  the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, the Tony Award for Best Play, and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Play, amongst other gongs.

The 2003 HBO mini-series version also won five Golden Globe and 11 Emmys.

To mark the 25th Anniversary, the National Theatre will be putting on a new staging, with a great cast including, Rusell Tovey, Andrew Garfield, Nathan Lane, Stuart Angell, Susan Brown, Laura Caldow, Denise Gough, Claire Lambert, Amanda Lawrence, James McArdle, Becky Namgauds, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Stan West and Lewis Wilkins. Now the first cast pictures have been released, which you can take a look at below.

Set in America in the mid-1980s. In the midst of the AIDS crisis and a conservative Reagan administration, New Yorkers grapple with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell. The production will be directed by Olivier and Tony award-winner Marianne Elliott (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, War Horse, Husbands & Sons).

Andrew Garfield, playing Prior Walter, comments: “I feel tremendously grateful and healthily daunted at the prospect of being back in a rehearsal room at the NT to attempt to scale the mountain of Tony Kushner’s masterpiece Angels in America. Thanking God or some other divine force to have Marianne Elliot as our intrepid leader and this incredible company of actors to share the adventure with. What a gift to work on and offer up this play that feels so urgent at this very moment, for all of our souls.”

Nathan Lane, playing Roy Cohn, adds: “I am very honored to be making my NT debut with such a distinguished cast under the direction of the brilliant Marianne Elliott in Tony Kushner’s masterpiece. In light of recent political events here in the U.S. I can’t think of a better or more timely play to be doing.”

Russell Tovey, playing Joe Pitt, says: “The great work is about to begin. The excitement and pride I feel as I embark on rehearsals for this epic play and this majestic production is palpable. I am so incredibly excited to be back at the NT after nearly ten years away with this historic and vitally important piece of theatre at a time when it has never seemed more relevant. I cannot wait to explore the tormented world of Joe Pitt and those tortured souls around him.”

The show will Preview in the Lyttelton Theatre from Tuesday 11 April, with a full opening in early May. Public booking for Angels in America will open at 8.30am on Friday 20 January 2017.

If you can’t get a ticket, Angels in America will be broadcast by NT Live from the National Theatre to cinemas around the UK and internationally (dates and venues to be announced).