| Elegies For Angels, Punks and Raging Queens | |
|---|---|
| Music | Janet Hood |
| Lyrics | Bill Russell |
| Book | Bill Russell |
| Basis | Inspired by the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology |
| Productions | 1989 Ohio Theatre, NYC 1990 Off-off Broadway 1993 West End 2001 New York City Concert |
Elegies For Angels, Punks and Raging Queens is a song cycle with music by Janet Hood and lyrics and additional text by Bill Russell. The work features songs and monologues inspired by the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt and Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology. Each of the monologues is written from the perspective of characters who've died from AIDS and the songs represent the feelings of friends and family members dealing with the loss.
The piece was developed in the late 1980s and was originally titled "The Quilt." It was produced first at the Ohio Theatre in Soho in NYC in 1989, where the new title was adopted, and then again Off-off-Broadway in Manhattan's East Village in February 1990. In 1992, it was produced at the King's Head Theatre in London, where it played for several months. In June 1993, the production was transferred to the Criterion Theatre in London's West End, where it played until July of the same year.[1] The London cast included Miquel Brown, Kim Criswell, Kwame Kwei-Armah, James Dreyfus, Simon Fanshawe and legendary drag queen Regina Fong.
"Elegies" was again performed in New York City on April 2, 2001 in the Haft Theatre at the Fashion Institute of Technology as a benefit for the Momentum AIDS Project. The cast for that performance included numerous well known performers including Alice Ripley, Emily Skinner, Brian d'Arcy James, Christopher Durang, Mario Cantone, Joe Piscopo and Norm Lewis.[2] The concert was recorded, and the soundtrack was released by Fynsworth Alley in 2001.
On December 1st 2008, there was a West End Gala performance of the show at Soho Revue Bar, produced by Rebel Theatre and directed by Simon Pollard. The cast included Anna Chancellor, David Bedella, Leanne Jones, Les Dennis, Adele Anderson and Debbie Chazen. All proceeds from the performance went to the UK charity Terence Higgins Trust.[3]
In addition to the New York and London productions of the piece, there have been professional productions in Australia, Germany and Israel, among other countries.[4]
The Irish premiere of the show was produced by Limerick's Bottom Dog Theatre Company in 2010.