‘ANGELS IN AMERICA’

As someone who was working as a fund-raiser at the Mark Taper Forum at the time, I can tell you that in the days leading up to the premiere of “Angels in America,” Tony Kushner was about as terrified as a man can be without falling over dead (“The Play That Made Us Gasp,” by Lawrence Christon, Aug. 6). He knew he had something, he just didn’t think it was that big of a something, and he was sincerely worried that the Taper would lose its shirt.

When I mentioned to him that I was certain he would win the Pulitzer Prize, he said, “I’ll bet you $100 I don’t.”

Days after he won, I received a check for $100 plus a note that read, “I have never been so happy to lose a bet.”

As the saying goes, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

ANDY TIEMANN

Hollywood

*

Having recently seen “Part I: Millennium Approaches,” I was struck by how two forces propel the work. One--very, very dramatic--is the gripping story of Roy Cohn, powerfully written.

The other is a rambling and bloated collage of melodramatic hysterics, self-indulgent speeches, freak-show elements, etc., etc., that exploit the relevant political and sexual issues in a sensationalistic fashion for an audience either sympathetic or gawking.

Myself, I would have preferred the riveting Roy Cohn saga crafted into a single play, watchable in a single evening. That would have required the playwright’s honoring such elements as--may I name just one?--unity.

DAVID LEWIS

Oakland