Tony Kushner, thinking citizen: The playwright on 'Angels in America,' 'West Side Story' and surviving Trump
LOS ANGELES - Hungry and weary after getting off a plane earlier in the day, Tony Kushner was running a few minutes late. We met in the lobby of the campus hotel at UCLA, where he was appearing that evening with author Sarah Vowell to talk about their mutual love for Abraham Lincoln.
He apologized for ordering a pizza, but travel, stress and the limited bar menu demanded comfort food. The event at Royce Hall marked the end of the California leg of this American history kibitzing tour, but Lincoln wasn't foremost on his mind.
Nor was the USC production of "A Bright Room Called Day," directed by Kushner's old friend David Warshofsky, that the playwright shoehorned into his West Coast itinerary. Kushner is revisiting the play for the Trump era, but the project is at an exploratory phase and a more significant drama from his past is eclipsing all other activities.
"Angels in America," his magnum opus, is having major revivals on both coasts. Kushner had just been to the Bay Area to check in on rehearsals with Berkeley Rep and was flying home the next day to New York, where the heralded National Theatre production was about to
