When ‘Angels’ took flight with Eureka Theatre debut
Before “Angels in America” became associated with Broadway, HBO and the first discussions of AIDS in countless American homes, the groundbreaking production was playing to sold-out crowds in a small theater in the Mission District.
Within weeks of its 1991 premiere, “Angels” became almost too popular for one city — and certainly for a playhouse the size of the Eureka Theatre, which had just a couple of hundred seats when it was located on 16th Street in San Francisco. The Eureka commissioned Tony Kushner to write the play, and even at the beginning of the run, with the second part of “Angels” still in development, he recognized the scope of what he was creating.
“I wanted to write about my own experiences being gay, and there was no way to write about being gay without writing about the AIDS crisis,” Kushner told Chronicle contributor Michael Fox on May 19, 1991, a few days before the
“There was no way to write about being gay without writing about the AIDS crisis.” Tony Kushner, “Angels in America” playwright
play opened. “As a disease that is about the breakdown of the immune system, AIDS is a metaphor for planetary breakdown.”
It might have been the bestknown production in the 45-year history of the Eureka, where the curtain came down for the last time on July 5. But the Eureka’s legacy includes much more than one play.
The Eureka was a nurturer of San Francisco live theater and comedy. Actors Danny Glover, Geoff Hoyle and Carl Lumbly got their start there; so did director Tony Taccone.
In the early 2000s, the SF Sketchfest comedy festival staged some of its first productions at the Eureka. In recent years, the Eureka supported many children’s theater programs.
But the theater will forever be linked to “Angels in America,” subtitled “A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” which explored the tragedies, complex relationships and hypocrisies of gay life in Ronald Reagan-era America.
Kushner conceived of “Angels” in the 1980s, while his first play, “A Bright Room Called Day,” was being staged at the Eureka. After the theater commissioned “Angels,” the National Endowment for the Arts and Fund for American Plays got behind it as well.
The Chronicle was already abuzz about the project in 1990, as word spread that Kushner’s work was going to be something special. Chronicle theater critic Steven Winn’s review of the first half of the play, “Millennium Approaches,” appeared on the front of Datebook, and he made the most of every column inch — declaring the 3¼-hour performance a “caustic, mysterious, funny, moving, provocative and enthralling new drama.”
“These first public performances of ‘Angels in America’ fulfill a long-nurtured dream,” Winn wrote on May 27, 1991. “For us the chance to witness Kushner’s extraordinary creation ... is a blessing and a privilege.”
Chronicle photographer Steve Ringman was there as well, taking photos of co-stars Michael Ornstein and Stephen Spinella in black and white and color. (The Chronicle had just started printing color photos in the early 1990s.)
Although “Millennium Approaches” was close to being completed, the second part, “Perestroika,” presented the following night, was less so. Later reports on the show had the still-in-progress second half being read in the Eureka by actors with scripts in their hands. “Perestroika” officially premiered in 1992 at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and the entire play opened on Broadway in 1993.
The Eureka Theatre continued producing plays through the 1990s, before moving in 1998 from the Mission District to the old Gateway Cinema in the Financial District. The theater will operate at its current 215 Jackson St. location under new management as the Gateway Theatre.
Kushner’s career continued to thrive after “Angels.” He has written movies in recent years, receiving Oscar nominations for the screenplays of Steven Spielberg’s “Munich” and “Lincoln,” both acclaimed films that feature politically charged past events that resonate with presentday audiences.
“Life is completely political,” Kushner told The Chronicle in 1991. “There’s no retreat from politics anywhere. You live in the mouth of the dragon.”