Lee Pace has officially joined the cast of the Broadway-bound revival of Tony Kushner’s Angels In America, as the closeted Republican Mormon Joe Pitt.
The two-part production, originally performed at London’s National Theater to critical acclaim, will play a limited eighteen-week run beginning with previews on February 23, 2018.
Lee Pace To Replace Russell Tovey As Joe Pitt
News of the Broadway transfer broke last month, coupled with the announcement that almost the entire London cast would be reprising their roles, including Andrew Garfield as Prior Walter, Nathan Lane as Roy Cohn, Denise Gough as Harper Pitt, James McArdle as Louis Ironson, and Susan Brown as Hannah Pitt. The one exception was Russell Tovey as Joe Pitt, but Playbill.com now reports that Pace (Pushing Daisies, The Hobbit, Halt And Catch Fire) will be taking over the role.
Angels In America, was first performed on a Broadway stage in 1993, followed by an HBO miniseries in 2003 and an off-Broadway revival in 2010. The recent London production, which closed in August, was screened in movie theaters around the world as part the National Theater’s “Live” series this past summer, and if you were fortunate enough to catch it, you’ll be able to appreciate just how excited I am for this Broadway transfer.
What Is Angels In America About?
It’s hard to describe Angels In America to somebody who’s never heard of it, but it could help to tack on the rest of the title: A Gay Fantasia On National Themes. Those “national themes” are heavy ones, with the action set right at the height of the AIDS epidemic, but they are as relevant today as they were in the 1980s. The play deals with motifs that we may not be comfortable with: politics, religion, race, homosexuality, etc. It manages to be fantastical and grounded at the same time, and will ultimately make you think, and question your identity as a member of a macrocosmic community. And it’ll make you laugh and cry along the way.
Put plainly, Angels In America is a beast of a show, in the best possible way. I can think of nobody better than Lee Pace to join this already impressive cast. The role of Joe Pitt is a tricky one; the character can very easily come across as selfish, even unlikeable—but at his core, Joe Pitt is a man struggling with identity just like the rest of us, unable to live up to the expectations social labels have impressed upon him. I have no doubt that Pace will be able to capture Joe’s vulnerability, and relatability, to perfection.
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