On the heels of her succesful return to the movies, Meryl Streep joined forces with Mike Nichols once again for his epic 6-part HBO miniseries “Angels in America”, based on the groundbreaking play by Tony Kushner. In the story about a group of homosexual men coming to terms with their HIV infection and the world crumbling around them, literally, Streep took over 4 roles: She played a Rabbi in the opening scene of the first episode, the Angel of Australia, Hannah Pitt, the Mormon mother of Patrick Wilson’s character, and the ghost of Ethel Rosenberg, who appears to haunt Roy Cohn, the lawyer who sent her and her husband on the electric chair, and who is now on his deathbed with AIDS.
“Angels in America” was a groundbreaking piece of television, earning the highest ratings for HBO at that time and receiving a record-breaking 21 Primetime Emmy Award nominations, winning 11, including Outstanding Miniseries. Meryl Streep won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie, as well as a consecutive Golden Globe and her first Screen Actors Guild Award.
