"Angels" Then and Now

Photo credit: OneonOneNYC

If theatrical success is measured by sold out performances and standing ovations, then PlayMakers Repertory Company’s production of Angels in America last year was a hit.  Critics called Angels, a Pulitzer Prize-winning play about the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, “a magnificent piece of contemporary theater.” 

The story was quite different 16 years ago, when the play's North Carolina debut in Charlotte resulted in boycotting, millions of dollars being cut from the arts community and the eventual closing of the city's only accredited professional theater. 

At first there was great excitement for the play to come to Charlotte.  Charlotte Observer theater critic Lawrence Toppman, who worked as the paper's film critic at the time, said the play was highly anticipated by audiences. 

“It was an extremely hot ticket,” Toppman said.  “It might be possible that every performance sold out – or at least every weekend performance.  It was very difficult to get in.”

After the production opened, many people were angered by the play’s risqué content.  A group of religious conservatives, including five Mecklenburg County commissioners, were especially vocal expressing their disdain for the play, which has full frontal male nudity and gay themes. 

In Toppman’s 2009 article “Participants Reflect on the ‘Angels’ Controversy in Charlotte’” Bill James, one of the commissioners who spearheaded the effort to ban the play, said his response was justified.  

“I report to voters, and voters were mad that their tax dollars went toward illegal, immoral and repugnant stuff,” James said.

In the wake of the Angels controversy, James and the four other members of the nine-member board voted in 1997 to cut $2.5 million from the Arts & Science Council.  Eight years later, the Charlotte Repertory Theatre closed its doors for good.

Toppman said the controversy created a lot of bad feeling in the Charlotte community.

“There were no winners in the outcome,” Toppman said.  “The county commissioners looked foolish and narrow minded and four of the five of them decided not to run again or were not reelected.  Nobody really came out of it smelling like roses.” 

Angels had rocked Charlotte and attracted national attention to the area.  Fifteen years later, the play found its way to Chapel Hill.

PlayMakers Repertory Company produced Angels in America Spring 2011.  Jeff Meanza, PRC’s associate artistic director, said he and Artistic Director Joseph Haj were anxious to see how modern audiences would respond to it.

“It was the 20 year anniversary of the play being written and we were curious of whether it would have any contemporary resonance,” Meanza said.  “It was a sort of test to see where we are now.  There’s been a big cultural shift across the state since the Charlotte incident.”

Meanza said he and Haj had no idea whether the show would be a success — they just hoped for the best.

“We were cautiously optimistic,” Meanza said.

Fortunately for PlayMakers, the production was a success.  The play ran from Jan. 29 to Mar. 6 and was met with positive reviews.  The News and Observer described Angels as “a play not everyone will want to see, but one everyone should see.”

Meanza said the play sold better than the theater’s 2010 production of Nicholas Nickelby, an eight-hour stage play adapted from the Charles Dickens novel.  Nickelby was PlayMakers’ first full-scale rotating repertory production and was universally praised by critics and audiences.

Whitney Vaughan, PRC’s wardrobe supervisor who worked backstage of Angels, said the production was, for the most part, well-received by audiences.

“Overall it seemed like people responded well to it,” Vaughan said.  “Some people would leave mid-show because it wasn’t what they expected, but those who stayed to the end responded pretty positively.”

Meanza confirmed that while the production was commercially successful and mostly well-received, not all audience members respected PlayMakers’ decision to show the play.

“There were people who were not pleased,” Meanza said.  “We got our share of letters from people with strong opinions.  A couple of people decided not to subscribe with us anymore.”

Yet those audience members’ reactions were nothing compared to those of the 1996 Charlotte controversy. Unlike the Charlotte showing, there were no picketers surrounding the PlayMakers production, chanting, “This play is evil.  Don’t go in.”

Toppman said part of the reason why recent North Carolina productions of Angels have been better received than in years past is that the show has become less shocking over the years.

“We’ve been desensitized by film, television, video and what we post online,” Toppman said.  “It’s hard for a play about social issues to irritate us now.  We just have sort of accepted it as part of the fabric of life in America.”

Meanza said it also has to do with audiences becoming more comfortable with the play and with gay themes in general.

“We produced the play after the HBO miniseries took off,” Meanza said.  “And there was a Broadway remount of the production.  There are also more queer characters on TV now than there were then.  It’s not as immediately scary to the majority of people as it once was.” 

 While PlayMakers never aims to shock or scare audiences, it prides itself on challenging patrons with the material it selects.  PlayMakers recently presented a one-night staged reading of “8,” which chronicles the controversial Proposition 8 trial.  Chapel Hill Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt read the stage directions for the play.

Tim Scales, PRC’s marketing assistant and producer of “8,” said PlayMakers is devoted to promoting dialogue through theater.  Scales said the Chapel Hill community has come to expect bold, intellectually satisfying content from the PlayMakers stage.

“We live in a very socially conscious community,” Scales said.  “We have an audience that cares about important issues and wants to come see these shows.  And as a theater, we want to remain relevant.  We want to have an impact.”

Scales credits PRC Artistic Director Joseph Haj, who began working for the theater in 2006, for turning PlayMakers into a socially aware theater.

“He sets what direction our plays go in,” Scales said.  “He puts a lot of resonance on producing plays that explore important issues.”

Meanza said that one of the immediate changes Haj made after joining the theater in 2006 was to add a second stage season of plays – called PRC ² – where a post-show conversation follows every performance.

In a 2011 interview, Haj said he believes it is PlayMakers’ duty to address difficult issues in its work.  Since his coming, the theater has produced Fences, The Parchman Hour and Big River, which address race issues.


Haj said one of theater’s greatest responsibilities is to encourage audience members to think deeply about the material and engage in meaningful conversation with each other.


“If you’re going to strive to be an important theater, you have to have courage,” Haj said.  “You have to be willing to ask thought-provoking questions.  You have to make it meaningful.”

Meanza agreed.  “We realize that theater has a social responsibility,” Meanza said.  “It is one of the last public forums where the medium lends itself to generating dialogue.  We believe that theater is not a passive art form, but that it’s participatory.”

PlayMakers’ 2012-2013 season includes A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry and Clybourne Park, a new Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Bruce Norris.  Both plays address race issues.

Toppman said it is a testament to how far we have come as a society that theaters in North Carolina are now able to show productions like these without causing much of a stir.

“We’ve passed it as a culture  — as a threatening point,” Toppman said.  “We ‘get it’ better; it doesn’t scare us.”

Meanza said PlayMakers will continue to produce works that start conversations around social and political issues.

“Absolutely.  Why would you do anything else?” Meanza said. “We’re not going to be doing seasons of Annie and Thumbelina. We’re not interested in that type of playmaking.”