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Before “Angels in America,” there was “A Bright Room Called Day,” the 1985 history play in which Tony Kushner tried out some of the same expressionistic storytelling techniques that “Angels” would make famous a few short years later. Oskar Eustis, whose association with Mr. Kushner is of long and productive standing, thinks the time is ripe for a revival, and it’s not hard to see why. The premise of the play, set in Germany at the moment in 1933 when the Nazis came to power, is that Hitler triumphed for roughly the same reason that Ronald Reagan was elected: Both men assured their disaffected followers that liberal democracy was the reason for, not the solution to, the troubles of the time. President Trump, Mr. Kushner argues, is doing the same thing today.
No matter what you think of this notion, I suspect that you will find “A Bright Room Called Day,” whose characters are a gaggle of artsy types who can’t decide how to respond to the collapse of their world, to be long on anguish and short on coherence….
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To read my review of A Bright Room Called Day, go here.A video featurette about A Bright Room Called Day: