Editing Angels in America (section)

===Part One: Millennium Approaches===
Set in [[New York City]], the play takes place between October 1985 and February 1986.<ref>{{cite book|title=Angels In America|date=2013|publisher=Theatre Communications Group|isbn=978-1-55936-384-6|edition=2013, Revised and Completed|location=New York|page=9|language=en|chapter=Millennium. Act I, Scene 1|last1=Kushner|first1=Tony}}</ref> The play begins at a funeral, where an elderly [[rabbi]] eulogizes the deceased woman's entire generation of immigrants who risked their lives to build a community in the United States. Soon after, the deceased's grandson, Louis Ironson, learns that his lover Prior Walter, the last member of an [[Old Stock Americans|old stock American family]], has [[AIDS]]. As Prior's illness progresses, Louis becomes unable to cope, and he abandons Prior during a health episode that lands him in the hospital. Prior is given emotional support by their friend Belize, a hospital nurse and ex-[[drag queen]], who separately also deals with Louis's self-castigating guilt and myriad excuses for leaving Prior.

Joe Pitt, a [[Mormons|Mormon]] [[United States Republican Party|Republican]] clerk in the same judge's office where Louis holds a word-processing job, is offered a position in [[Washington, D.C.]] by his mentor, the [[McCarthyism|McCarthyist]] lawyer and power broker [[Roy Cohn]]. Joe hesitates to accept due to his [[agoraphobic]], [[Valium]]-addicted wife Harper, who refuses to relocate. Feeling adrift and undesired by Joe, Harper retreats into drug-fueled escapist fantasies, including a dream where she crosses paths with Prior even though the two of them have never met in the real world. She confronts Joe about his deeply-closeted homosexuality, which he views as a sin. Torn by pressure from Roy and a burgeoning infatuation with Louis, Joe drunkenly comes out to his conservative mother Hannah, who reacts by changing the subject and hanging up the phone. Concerned for her son, she sells her house in [[Salt Lake City]] and travels to New York. After Joe confesses his homosexuality to a drug-addled Harper and leaves her, she flees their apartment and wanders the streets of Brooklyn, believing she is in Antarctica. Joe sets out to look for her, but follows Louis to Central Park, where they tentatively begin an affair.

Meanwhile, Roy Cohn discovers that he has advanced AIDS and is dying. Defiantly refusing to publicly admit he is gay or has AIDS, Roy instead declares he has liver cancer. Facing [[disbarment]] for misappropriating money from a client, Roy is determined to beat the case so he can die a lawyer in good standing, and he attempts to position Joe in the [[United States Department of Justice|Department of Justice]]  to ensure the case is quashed. When Harper disappears and Joe refuses his offer, Roy flies into a rage and collapses in pain. As he awaits transport to the hospital, he is haunted by the ghost of [[Ethel Rosenberg]], whom he prosecuted in her trial for espionage, and who was executed after Roy illegally lobbied the judge for the death penalty.

Prior begins to experience intense dreams and visions as his health worsens. He hears the voice of an angel telling him to prepare for her arrival, a flaming book erupts from the floor during a medical check-up, and he receives visits from the ghosts of two ancestral Prior Walters, informing him that he is a [[prophet|divine prophet]]. Prior does not know if these visitations are hallucinations caused by an emotional breakdown or if they are real. At the end of Part One, a glorious winged Angel crashes through Prior's bedroom ceiling, addresses him as "Prophet", and proclaims that "the Great Work" has begun.