Politics & Power Quote by Chita Rivera

San Francisco gets praised with one hand and needled with the other, and Rivera’s line works because it’s a performer’s compliment delivered like a rimshot. “Blown us all away” is the expected tour-stop gratitude: the city is dazzling, the crowd is electric, the hospitality impeccable. Then she drops the pivot - “I also understand Angels in America didn’t do well there” - which lands as both gossip and critique, a sly reminder that great cities still have blind spots.

The subtext is stage-savvy and a little territorial. Rivera isn’t just talking about civic charm; she’s measuring taste. Angels in America is canon now, but it arrived as a politically charged, AIDS-era epic that demanded emotional stamina and ideological openness. By invoking its supposed failure, Rivera hints that San Francisco’s progressive self-image can be more brand than behavior: the town that markets itself as avant-garde may still flinch at difficult art, or simply resist being challenged when it’s on vacation.

There’s also a practical Broadway-road context hiding inside the joke. Touring is a referendum city by city; every market has its own appetites, biases, and ticket-buying habits. Rivera frames her own production’s success against Kushner’s reported stumble, positioning her show as the one that “gets” San Francisco - or, sharper, as the one San Francisco can comfortably get.

It’s light, but not empty: a veteran performer using humor to flatter an audience while quietly interrogating what, exactly, their applause is willing to endorse.