Glenn Close will portray closeted gay lawyer Roy Cohn in an all-star digital performance of Tony Kushner’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Angels in America, benefiting the Foundation for AIDS Research’s (amFAR) Covid-19 relief fund.

Other cast members for the livestream benefit include Laura Linney, Patti LuPone, S. Epatha Merkerson, Brian Tyree Henry, Paul Dano, Andrew Rannells and Slave Play playwright Jeremy O. Harris. Titled The Great Work Begins: Scenes from ‘Angels in America,’ the hour-long performance will feature a significantly abridged version of the four-hour play, showcasing seven scenes selected for their focus on the experience of living through a plague.

The event will stream Thursday, October 8 at 8:30 p.m. ET on the Broadway.com YouTube channel, and will be free, with donations to amFAR’s Fund to Fight Covid-19 highly encouraged. A donation of $100 or more will provide access to a 45-minute live conversation immediately following the performance featuring Kushner, several cast members, director Ellie Heyman, amFAR CEO Kevin Robert Frost and moderator Paul Wontorek of Broadway.com.


“I’m touched and honored that amFAR and the remarkable Ellie Heyman decided to build this evening around Angels,” Kushner said in a statement. “For over 30 years, amFAR has been steadfastly determined to find a cure for AIDS. Like everyone else on the planet (except maybe some people), I’m praying that the novel coronavirus will prove easier to obliterate than HIV. But I know we’ll all do whatever’s required to defeat this scourge, and I know that amFAR, as it always has been, will be there in the heat of battle with us. So, to everyone involved, and to everyone who watches the broadcast and decides to donate, thanks for supporting this heroic, essential American institution!“