AceShowbiz - Glenn Close has signed on to play infamous real-life lawyer Roy Cohn in a charity performance of groundbreaking play "Angels in America".

The iconic actress will play the attorney and fixer, best known for trying to route out communists among Washington, D.C.'s political elite in the 1950s, in "The Great Work Begins: Scenes From Angels in America", an hourlong livestream benefit for the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) Fund to Fight Covid-19, which aids coronavirus research.

Tony Kushner's Pulitzer Prize winning play, examining AIDS and homosexuality in America amid the HIV pandemic of the 1980s, debuted on Broadway in 1993, and amFAR CEO Kevin Robert Frost insists the new reimagining will be particularly relevant amid the current public health crisis and resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement.

"Angels is an intensely personal work that is so much more than just an AIDS play and, in this time of COVID and national unrest, its themes of racism and government failings make it as relevant and resonant today as it was when it was first performed 30 years ago," Frost wrote in a statement.

Alan Cumming, Whoopi Goldberg, Jake Gyllenhaal, Laura Linney, Patti LuPone, S. Epatha Merkerson, Brian Tyree Henry, and other names are among the all-star line-up for the free online event, which features self-filmed scenes edited together.

Fans will also have a chance to chat with castmembers during a live 45-minute conversation immediately following the performance with a donation of $100 (£79) or more.

"The Great Work Begins: Scenes From Angels in America" benefit event for the Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR) Fund to Fight Covid-19 airs on 8 October (20) on the Broadway.com YouTube channel.