[Tony Kushner], arguably the most successful serious artist in America today, apparently takes that dictum seriously. He lives his creative life as if the house were on fire, and no one, neither king nor commoner, could accuse the 47-year-old Kushner of negligence. A televised production of his most famous play last winter brought him to an audience vastly larger than any he had previously reached, and he continues to produce new works at a frenetic pace. He also persists in speaking out on a range of controversial social, political and economic issues. Whether he's questioning or challenging U.S. policy on same-sex marriage, Israeli behavior in the territories -- or himself on any number of issues, Kushner never lets up. He's not merely successful, he's ubiquitous. His speaking calendar is so crammed it would tax an Olympic athlete, not to mention a slight, New York Jewish intellectual. And he does it all with a sensibility that is eclectically but overtly Jewish.

Kushner's new, partly autobiographical, musical play, "Caroline, or Change," has just begun previews on Broadway, having finished a sold-out run at the Public Theater in February. It opens at the Eugene O'Neill Theater on May 2. The very next week, a new production of "Homebody/Kabul" opens at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The 2001 play, which Kushner wrote before 9/11, concerns a middle-aged woman who disappears after venturing into Taliban-era Afghanistan, and whose husband and daughter come to the Afghan capital in search of her. In addition, the final months of 2003 saw the publication of three new books bearing Kushner's name as either editor or author, one of them a collection of essays about Israel. Another book, of political and social essays, is due out this spring. Finally, HBO's recent $60-million two-installment production of "Angels in America," directed by Mike Nichols and starring Meryl Streep, Al Pacino and Emma Thompson, brought his seven-hour 1990s play cycle to millions of new viewers, and won 5 awards at the Golden Globes.

One of the meanings of the word "change" in the play's title is pocket change. In an effort to make young Noah (Harrison Chad) more responsible, his stepmother, Rose (Veanne Cox), tells the family's maid, [Caroline Thibodeaux], that she can keep any change she finds in the boy's pockets when she launders his pants. This small domestic decision has profound consequences: The impoverished Caroline has to reconcile her need for the money with her shame and resentment at being offered it. Then, when Caroline is unable to find the courage to change her life, it strains relations with her spirited daughter Emmie (the impressive Anika Noni Rose); finally it affects most severely her interactions with young [Noah Gellman]. For Noah, Caroline is both mother and father figure (he sings, "Caroline who's always mad!.../Caroline who's stronger than my dad!"). He treasures the daily ritual of lighting her cigarette and dreams of becoming part of her family. However, when Noah leaves $20 of Hanukkah gelt in his pants, and Caroline threatens to take it for herself, he lashes out at her, couching his anger in racist terms. She in turn tells him that the Jews are going to burn in hell. It is only later, though, that the true nature of the relationship comes into focus. Noah asks his family's employee if, after these words have been forgiven, they can resume being friends, and Caroline states baldly, "Weren't never friends."