Elegies For Angels, Punks and Raging Queens

About the show

Elegies For Angels, Punks and Raging Queens is a musical with music by Janet Hood and lyrics and book 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 originally produced in 1989 by the TWEED New Works Festival at the Ohio Theatre in Soho in NYC, where the new title was adopted. It was subsequently produced off-off Broadway in 1990 by TWEED's artistic director Kevin Malony and Justin Ross at RAPP Arts Center in Manhattan's East Village. In 1992, it was produced by Giacomo Capizzano at the King's Head Theatre in London, where it played for several months. In June 1993, the production was transferred by Mr Capizzano to the Criterion Theatre in London's West End, where it played until July of the same year. The London cast included Miquel Brown, Kim Criswell, Kwame Kwei-Armah, James Dreyfus, Simon Fanshawe and legendary drag queen Regina Fong. 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.