Even in New York, it appears, you don't trim Tony Kushner. The celebrated playwright of "Angels in America" has just gotten reviews for his new family drama, "The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures," which premiered at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis in 2009.
In Minneapolis, the play ran more than three-and-half-hours. It was reportedly heading for a trim before opening in New York, but it's running almost four hours there, with two intermissions.
After lengthy previews, it opened May 5 at the Public Theater. The play's cast is largely the same as at the Guthrie, with a few changes.
Kushner and the Guthrie asked critics from outside the Twin Cities not to review the play when it played in Minneapolis. As reported at the time, some out-of-town critics were put off by this request. See that story here.
Critical response has been tepid, with reviewers at the Post and the Times opining that the show's ideas and its ideologies are more important than its characters.
The New York Post found the play "occasionally bracing" and "ambitious," but "mostly draining," and concluded that "Kushner seems to prefer ideas to humans."
"Watching Tony Kushner's new drama," wrote Post critic Elizabeth Vincentelli, "is like being in a washing machine: soak, agitate, spin. And repeat."
The New York Times praised the play as "well-acted" and having "densely textured portraits" of its characters. Critic Ben Brantley went on to say, "But when that first din of many voices disentangles itself into distinct strands of dialogue, a nagging impression emerges that the most important conversation that's happening in this play isn't among its characters; it's between Mr. Kushner and a vast library of political theory and world drama."
