Terrence McNally | |
|---|---|
 McNally in 2020 | |
| Born | (1938-11-03)November 3, 1938 St. Petersburg, Florida |
| Died | March 24, 2020(2020-03-24) (aged 81) Sarasota, Florida |
| Occupation | Playwright,librettist |
| Education | Columbia University (BA) |
| Period | 1964–2020 |
| Spouse | |
Terrence McNally (November 3, 1938 – March 24, 2020) was an Americanplaywright,librettist, andscreenwriter. Described as "the bard of American theater"[1] and "one of the greatest contemporary playwrights the theater world has yet produced,"[2] McNally was the recipient of five Tony Awards.[3] He won theTony Award for Best Play forLove! Valour! Compassion! andMaster Class and theTony Award for Best Book of a Musical forKiss of the Spider Woman andRagtime,[4][5] and received the 2019Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.[6][7] He was inducted into theAmerican Theater Hall of Fame in 1996, and he also received the Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 and the Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2018, he was inducted into theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters, the highest recognition of artistic merit in the United States. His other accolades included anEmmy Award, twoGuggenheim Fellowships, aRockefeller Grant, fourDrama Desk Awards, twoLucille Lortel Awards, twoObie Awards, and threeHull-Warriner Awards.[8]
His career spanned six decades, and his plays, musicals, and operas were routinely performed all over the world.[9] He also wrote screenplays, teleplays, and a memoir.[10][11] Active in the regional andoff-Broadway theatre movements as well as onBroadway, he was one of the few playwrights of his generation to have successfully passed from theavant-garde to mainstream acclaim.[12] His work centered on the difficulties of and urgent need for human connection. He was vice-president of the Council of theDramatists Guild from 1981 to 2001.
He died of complications fromCOVID-19 on March 24, 2020, at Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Florida.[13]
McNally was born November 3, 1938, inSt. Petersburg, Florida, to Hubert Arthur and Dorothy Katharine (Rapp) McNally,[14] two transplanted New Yorkers from Irish Catholic backgrounds.[15][16] His parents ran a seaside bar and grill called The Pelican Club, but after a hurricane destroyed the establishment, the family briefly relocated toPort Chester, New York, then toDallas, Texas, and finally toCorpus Christi, Texas. There Hubert McNally purchased and managed aSchlitz beer distributorship,[17] and McNally attendedW.B. Ray High School. Despite his distance from New York City, McNally's parents enjoyed Broadway musicals. When McNally was eight years old, his parents took him to seeAnnie Get Your Gun, starringEthel Merman, and on a subsequent outing, McNally sawGertrude Lawrence inThe King and I.[18] McNally later said: "When I sawOn the Town, with Frank Sinatra and Gene Kelly and Jules Munshin with the Staten Island Ferry and the Empire State Building, I said: 'That's where I want to live.' I've never regretted it."[19][a] In high school McNally was encouraged to write by a gifted English teacher, Maurine McElroy (1913–2005).[b]
He enrolled atColumbia College in 1956. There he especially enjoyed Andrew Chiappe's two-semester course onShakespeare in which students read Shakespeare's plays in roughly the order of their composition.[22] He joined theBoar's Head Society[23] and wrote Columbia's annualVarsity Show, which featured music by fellow studentEdward L. Kleban and directed byMichael P. Kahn. He graduated in 1960 with aB.A. in English and membership inPhi Beta Kappa Society.[12][24] In 1961, McNally was hired by novelistJohn Steinbeck to tutor his two teenage sons as the Steinbeck family took a cruise around the world.[c] On the cruise McNally completed a draft of what became the opening act ofAnd Things That Go Bump in the Night. Steinbeck asked McNally to write the libretto forHere's Where I Belong, a musical version of the novelEast of Eden.[25]
After graduation, McNally moved to Mexico to focus on his writing, completing a one-act play which he submitted to theActors Studio in New York City for production. While the play was turned down by the acting school, the Studio was impressed with the script, and McNally was invited to serve as the Studio'sstage manager so that he could gain practical knowledge of theater. His earliest full-length play,This Side of the Door, deals with a sensitive boy's battle of wills with his overbearing father and was produced in anActors Studio Workshop in 1962, featuring a youngEstelle Parsons.[12] Starting a career that covered both off-Broadway and Broadway, his plays cried out againstVietnam, satirized stale family dynamics, mocked sexual mores and became a part of the social protest movement of the 1960s and early 1970s.[26]
In 1964, his next playAnd Things That Go Bump in the Night puthomosexuality squarely on stage which brought him the ire of New York City's conservative theatre critics.[27] It opened at theRoyale Theatre on Broadway to generally negative reviews. The play explores the psycho-social dynamic of anxiety that leads one to preemptively and defensively accuse others of creating problems that in actuality result from one's own insecurity. McNally later said, "My first play,Things That Go Bump in the Night, was a big flop. I had to begin all over again."[11] Nevertheless, the producer,Theodore Mann dropped the price of tickets to $1.00 which allowed the production to run with sold-out houses for three weeks.[28]
Next (1968), which brought him his greatest early acclaim and was directed byElaine May and starredJames Coco, follows a married, middle-aged, businessman who has been mistakenly drafted into the armed forces.Botticelli (1968) centers on two American soldiers standing guard in the jungle while making a game of the great names in Western Civilization.¡Cuba Si! (1968) satirizes the disdain that many Americans feel for the idea of revolution though United States was itself born out of a revolution. It starredMelina Mercouri. InWhere Has Tommy Flowers Gone? (1971) he celebrates while mourning the ineffectiveness of the American youth movement's conviction to "blow this country up so we can start all over again."Sweet Eros (1968) is about a young man who professes his love to a naked woman he has gagged and bound to a chair. InLet It Bleed (1972) a young couple showers and becomes convinced an intruder is lurking on the other side of the shower curtain. These and his other early plays, includingTour (1967),Witness (1968), andBringing It All Back Home (1970), andWhiskey (1973), form a dark satire on American moral complacency.[12]
McNally turned to comedy andfarce, beginning withNoon (1968), a sexual farce revolving around five strangers who are lured to an apartment in lower Manhattan by a personal advertisement.Bad Habits, which satirizes American reliance uponpsychotherapy, premiered at the John Drew Theatre inEast Hampton, New York, in 1971 starringLinda Lavin. It transferred to theBooth Theatre on Broadway in 1974 and garnered anObie Award.The Ritz is a farce centering on a straight man who inadvertently takes refuge in a Mafia-owned gay bathhouse. It opened at theNational Theatre inWashington, D.C., and moved to theLongacre Theatre on Broadway in 1975.Robert Drivas, then McNally's romantic partner, directed both productions.[29][12] McNally adapted the play for the motion picture,The Ritz (1976), directed byRichard Lester. In 1978, McNally wroteBroadway, Broadway, which failed in its Philadelphia try-out starringGeraldine Page. Rewritten and retitledIt's Only a Play, it premiered in off-Broadway in 1985 atManhattan Theatre Club directed byJohn Tillinger and starringChristine Baranski,Joanna Gleason, andJames Coco.[12][29]
After the failure ofBroadway, Broadway and living briefly inHollywood, he returned to New York City and formed an artistic relationship with Manhattan Theatre Club. The rapid spread ofAIDS fundamentally changed his writing.[12] McNally only became truly successful with works such as the off-Broadway production ofFrankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune and its screen adaptation with starsAl Pacino andMichelle Pfeiffer. His firstBroadway musical wasThe Rink in 1984, a project he joined after the score by composerJohn Kander and lyricistFred Ebb had been written. In 1990, McNally won anEmmy Award for Best Writing in a Miniseries or Special forAndre's Mother, a drama about a woman coping with her son's death from AIDS. A year later, inLips Together, Teeth Apart, two married couples spend the Fourth of July weekend at a summer house onFire Island. They are all afraid to use the pool given that its owner has just died of AIDS. It was written forChristine Baranski,Anthony Heald,Swoosie Kurtz (taking the place ofKathy Bates), and frequent McNally collaboratorNathan Lane, who had also starred inThe Lisbon Traviata.[30][31]
WithKiss of the Spider Woman (based on the novel byManuel Puig) in 1992, McNally returned to the musical stage, collaborating with Kander and Ebb on a script which explores the complex relationship between two men jailed together in a Latin American prison.Kiss of the Spider Woman won the 1993Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical, the first of McNally's fourTony Awards. He collaborated withStephen Flaherty andLynn Ahrens onRagtime in 1997, a musical adaptation of theE. L. Doctorow novel, which tells the story of Coalhouse Walker Jr., a black musician who demands retribution when hisModel T is destroyed by a mob of white troublemakers. The musical also features such historical figures asHarry Houdini,Booker T. Washington,J. P. Morgan, andHenry Ford. For his libretto, McNally won his third Tony Award.Ragtime finished its Broadway run on January 16, 2000. A revival in 2009 closed after only two months.[32]
McNally's other plays from this period include 1994'sLove! Valour! Compassion!, with Lane andJohn Glover, which examines the relationships of eight gay men; it won McNally his second Tony Award; andMaster Class (1995), a character study of legendary opera sopranoMaria Callas, which starredZoe Caldwell and won theTony Award for Best Play, McNally's fourth.[33]
McNally'sCorpus Christi (1997) became the subject of protests. In this retelling of the story of Jesus' birth, ministry, and death, he and his disciples are portrayed as homosexual. The play was initially canceled because of death threats against the board members of theManhattan Theatre Club, which produced the play.[34] The board relented after several other playwrights, includingAthol Fugard, threatened to withdraw their plays ifCorpus Christi was not produced. A crowd of almost 2,000 protested the play as blasphemous at its opening. After it opened in London in 1999, a group called the "Defenders of the Messenger Jesus" issued afatwa sentencing McNally to death.[35] In 2008, the play was revived in New York City atRattlestick Playwrights Theatre. Reviewing this production forThe New York Times, Jason Zinoman wrote that "without the noise of controversy, the play can finally be heard. Staged with admirable delicacy... the work seems more personal than political, a coming-of-age story wrapped in religious sentiment."[36]
In 2000, McNally partnered with composer and lyricistDavid Yazbek to write the musicalThe Full Monty, which was directed byJack O'Brien and choreographed byJerry Mitchell. It had an initial run atThe Old Globe Theatre and then transferred to theEugene O'Neill Theatre on Broadway. The opening night cast includedPatrick Wilson,Andre De Shields,Jason Danieley,Kathleen Freeman,Emily Skinner, andAnnie Golden.[37] It was nominated for 12 Tony Awards including for McNally's book.[38] It later transferred to thePrince of Wales Theater in London'sWest End.[39]
McNally collaborated on several new American operas.[40] His voice may be more familiar with opera fans than theater-goers, as for nearly 30 years (1979–2008) he was a member of theTexaco Opera Quiz panel that fielded questions during the weeklyLive from the Met radio broadcasts.[12] He wrote the libretto forDead Man Walking, his adaptation ofSister Helen Prejean's book, with a score byJake Heggie. The opera had its world premiere atSan Francisco Opera in 2000 and subsequently received two commercial recordings and over 40 productions worldwide, making it "one of the most successful American operas in recent decades."[41] In 2007, Heggie composed a chamber opera,Three Decembers, with a libretto byGene Scheer based on a text McNally had created in 1999 for a Christmas concert to benefitBroadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS,Some Christmas Letters (and a Couple of Phone Calls, Too).[42][43] In October 2015,Dallas Opera presentedGreat Scott with an original libretto by McNally and a score by Heggie. The new opera starredJoyce DiDonato andFrederica von Stade and was directed by Jack O'Brien.[44]
TheKennedy Center presented three of McNally's plays that focus on opera under the headingNights at the Opera, in March 2010. It included a new play,Golden Age;Master Class, starringTyne Daly; andThe Lisbon Traviata, starringJohn Glover andMalcolm Gets.[45][46][47]Golden Age subsequently ran Off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club New York City Center – Stage I from November 2012 to January 2013.[48]
In 2001, McNally started what became a 15-year developmental process towards Broadway with the musicalThe Visit, for which he wrote the book. The music is written byJohn Kander and the lyrics byFred Ebb. Adapted fromFriedrich Dürrenmatt's 1956 satire,The Visit is the story of a widow who has amassed enormous sums of wealth and returns to her hometown to seek revenge on the villagers who scorned her in her youth. The project originally starredAngela Lansbury who departed the process to care for her ailing husband.Chita Rivera became the new star andThe Visit had its first production atThe Goodman Theater inChicago in 2001. The first preview was held just ten days after theSeptember 11 attacks, and the producers were unable to get many investors or critics from New York City to fly to Chicago. In 2004, Fred Ebb, the lyricist, died. Its next regional production occurred in 2008 at TheSignature Theatre outside of Washington, D.C. In 2014, under the direction ofJohn Doyle and starringChita Rivera andRoger Rees,The Visit had a new production atWilliamstown Theatre and then transferred to Broadway at TheLyceum Theatre in 2015.[49][50] The musical was nominated for five Tony awards including for McNally's book.[51]
Continuing his work on librettos, McNally partnered with his collaborators onRagtime,Stephen Flaherty andLynn Ahrens, to write the musicalA Man of No Importance which premiered atLincoln Center in 2002 and was directed byJoe Mantello.[52] He also wrote the libretto forChita Rivera: The Dancer's Life, in 2005, another collaboration with Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, which began atThe Old Globe and subsequently transferred to Broadway at theGerald Schoenfeld Theatre.[53]
In 2004,Primary Stages presented McNally'sThe Stendhal Syndrome, which according to McNally explores "how art can affect us emotionally, psychologically, and erotically." The play starredIsabella Rossellini andRichard Thomas and was directed by Leonard Foglia.[54] In 2007,Philadelphia Theatre Company presentedSome Men, which explores the evolution of gay relationships and same-sex marriage. It went on toSecond Stage Theatre in New York and was directed by Trip Cullman.[55] That same year McNally's dramaDeuce ran on Broadway at theMusic Box Theater for a limited engagement in 2007 for 121 performances. Directed byMichael Blakemore, the play starredAngela Lansbury, in her return to Broadway after more than 20 years, andMarian Seldes.[56]
And Away We Go premiered Off-Broadway at thePearl Theatre in November 2013, with direction by Jack Cummings III and featuredDonna Lynne Champlin, Sean McNall and Dominic Cuskern.[57] The play takes place over several millennia covering the most pivotal moments in dramatic history entwined with a modern-day story of a struggling theatre company.[58] McNally said that "It's very much written for the Pearl, the company that has kept the faith for the great classic plays. There are whole seasons in New York when I don't think a single classic play would have been performed if it hadn't been for the Pearl... I think it's really important. I write new plays for a living; I certainly don't think theatre should be just revivals, but there has always got to be a place forChekhov,Ibsen,Shakespeare,Moliere andAeschylus."[59]
Mothers and Sons starringTyne Daly andFrederick Weller opened on Broadway at theJohn Golden Theatre, whereMaster Class had its premiere, on March 24, 2014 (February 23, 2014, in previews).[60]Mothers and Sons premiered at theBucks County Playhouse (Pennsylvania) in June 2013.[61] Vermont Stage opened its production January 27, 2016[62] at FlynnSpace inBurlington, Vermont. The play is an expansion on his 1988 dramaAndre's Mother, which was set at a memorial service for a victim of theAIDS crisis. Mothers and Sons also marked the first time a legally wed gay couple was portrayed on Broadway.[63] It was nominated for two Tony Awards including for Best Play.[64]
McNally'sFire and Air premiered Off-Broadway atClassic Stage Company on February 1, 2018.[65] The play explores the history of theBallets Russes, the Russian ballet company, with a particular focus onSergei Diaghilev, the ballet impresario, andVaslav Nijinsky, the dancer and choreographer. It featured the actorsDouglas Hodge,Marsha Mason,Marin Mazzie,John Glover, andJay Armstrong Johnson and was directed by Tony Award-winnerJohn Doyle.[66]
On May 29, 2019, a revival ofFrankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune opened on Broadway at theBroadhurst Theatre. The production starredAudra McDonald andMichael Shannon, and was directed by Arin Arbus in her Broadway debut.[67]
In June 2019, to mark the50th anniversary of theStonewall riots, an event widely considered a watershed moment in the modernLGBTQ rights movement,Queerty named him one of thePride50 "trailblazing individuals who actively ensure society remains moving towardsequality, acceptance and dignity for allqueer people".[68]
McNally received a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2019.[69][70]
_(cropped).jpg)
In his early years in New York City, McNally's interest in theatre brought him to a party where, departing, he shared a cab withEdward Albee, who had recently writtenThe Zoo Story andThe Sandbox. They functioned as a couple for over four years during which Albee wroteThe American Dream andWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?[12] He was frustrated by Albee's lack of openness about his sexuality. McNally later said: "I became invisible when press was around or at an opening night. I knew it was wrong. It's so much work to live that way."[71] After his relationship with Albee, McNally entered into a long-term relationship with the actor and directorRobert Drivas.[12] Drivas and McNally broke up as a couple in 1976; they remained close friends until Drivas died of AIDS-related complications ten years later.[29]
McNally was partnered toTom Kirdahy, a Broadway producer and a former civil rights attorney for not-for-profit AIDS organizations, following a civil union ceremony inVermont on December 20, 2003.[72][73] They married inWashington, D.C., on April 6, 2010. In celebration of theSupreme Court's decision to legalize same-sex marriage in all 50 states, they renewed their vows atNew York City Hall with MayorBill de Blasio, Kirdahy's college roommate,[74] officiating on June 26, 2015.[75][76]
As a young man, McNally was a heavy drinker. He relates that while attending a party in 1980 he spilled a drink onLauren Bacall. "Then someone I hardly knew,Angela Lansbury, [said] 'I just want to say, I don't know you very well, but every time I see you, you're drunk, and it bothers me.'...She was someone I revered, and she said this with such love and concern. I went to an A.A. meeting, and within a year, I had stopped drinking."[77]
When given his Tony for Lifetime Achievement in June 2019, he began his acceptance speech saying "Lifetime achievement. Not a moment too soon." He wore a cannula and appeared short of breath.[78] McNally died atSarasota Memorial Hospital in Sarasota, Florida, on March 24, 2020, at the age of 81, from complications ofCOVID-19 during theCOVID-19 pandemic. He had previously overcomelung cancer in the late 1990s that cost him portions of both his lungs due to the disease, and he was living withCOPD at the time of his death.[13]
For McNally, the most important function of theatre was to create community and bridge rifts opened between people by differences in religion, race, gender, and particularly sexual orientation.[79]
In an address to members of theLeague of American Theatres and Producers he remarked, "I think theatre teaches us who we are, what our society is, where we are going. I don't think theatre can solve the problems of a society, nor should it be expected to ... plays don't do that. People do. [But plays can] provide a forum for the ideas and feelings that can lead a society to decide to heal and change itself."[80]
McNally donated his papers to theHarry Ransom Center at theUniversity of Texas at Austin. The archive includes all of his major works for stage, screen, and television, as well as correspondence, posters, production photographs, programs, reviews, awards, speeches, and recordings. It is an open archive.[81] He had previously deposited his papers at the University of Michigan. His high school English teacher, Maurine McElroy, who had since become head of freshman English at the University of Texas, influenced his choice of Texas.[19]
Terrence McNally: Every Act of Life, a documentary about McNally's life and career, aired onPBS on June 14, 2019, as part of theirAmerican Masters series.[82][83] The film features new interviews with McNally in addition to conversations with his friends and collaborators, includingF. Murray Abraham,Christine Baranski,Tyne Daly,Edie Falco,John Kander,Nathan Lane,Angela Lansbury,Marin Mazzie,Audra McDonald,Rita Moreno,Billy Porter,Chita Rivera,Doris Roberts,John Slattery andPatrick Wilson, plus the voices ofDan Bucatinsky,Bryan Cranston andMeryl Streep.[83]Charles McNulty, reviewing the film for theLos Angeles Times, wrote, "If you can know a person by the company he keeps, you can judge a playwright by the talent that sticks by him. By this measure, Terrence McNally was one of the most important dramatists of the last 50 years."[84]
Plays:
Musical Theatre:
Opera:
Film:
TV:
| Year | Work | Category/award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Kiss of the Spider Woman | Best Book of a Musical | Won | [105] |
| 1995 | Love! Valour! Compassion! | Best Play | Won | |
| 1996 | Master Class | Best Play | Won | |
| 1998 | Ragtime | Best Book of a Musical | Won | |
| 2001 | The Full Monty | Best Book of a Musical | Nominated | |
| 2014 | Mothers and Sons | Best Play | Nominated | |
| 2015 | The Visit | Best Book of a Musical | Nominated | |
| 2019 | Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre | Received | ||
| Year | Work | Category/award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1975 | The Ritz | Outstanding New Play (American) | Nominated | [106] |
| 1990 | The Lisbon Traviata | Outstanding New Play | Nominated | [107] |
| 1992 | Lips Together, Teeth Apart | Outstanding New Play | Nominated | [106] |
| 1995 | Love! Valour! Compassion! | Outstanding Play | Won | [108] |
| 1996 | Master Class | Outstanding Play | Won | [109] |
| 1998 | Ragtime | Outstanding Book of a Musical | Won | [110] |
| 2001 | The Full Monty | Outstanding Book of a Musical | Nominated | [111] |
| 2003 | A Man of No Importance | Outstanding Book of a Musical | Nominated | [112] |
| 2006 | Dedication or The Stuff of Dreams | Outstanding Play | Nominated | [113] |
| 2007 | Some Men | Outstanding Play | Nominated | [114] |
| 2015 | The Visit | Outstanding Book of a Musical | Nominated | [115] |
| 2017 | Anastasia | Outstanding Book of a Musical | Nominated | [116] |
| Year | Work | Category/award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Andre's Mother | Outstanding Writing in a Miniseries or a Special | Won | [117] |
a one-act play that McNally wrote in response to theRobert Mapplethorpe controversy
Terence McNally ... has asked to have his name removed from the program.
