Though Terrence McNally came out when he moved to New York City to attend college and then wrote for decades about gay life, the four-time Tony Award-winning playwright had no use for polemics. The tale of two married couples, originally performed at the Manhattan Theater Club, was McNally’s most seamless and affecting blend of comedy and drama. The Manhattan Theater Club, the first company to consider staging it, received death threats and temporarily canceled the production before enjoying a successful run.When picking up his “Ragtime” Tony Award, McNally thanked the theater community for its outcry. A string of successes followed, including “Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?” (1971), “The Tubs” (1974), “Bad Habits” (1974) and “The Ritz” (1975), a farce set in a gay bathhouse that ran more than a year on Broadway and became McNally’s first produced screenplay.His breakout, “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune,” about a romance between a waitress and short order cook, was later adapted into a film starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File) and "Master Class" and the musicals "Ragtime" and "Kiss of the Spider Woman," has died of complications from the coronavirus. McNally was a lung cancer survivor who lived with chronic inflammatory lung disease.His plays and musicals explored how people connect — or fail to. Compassion!" McNally also wrote the musical bio-revue “Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life,” starring Rivera and based on her life, which ran on the Rialto in 2005-06. He was 81. “A lot of people stop learning in life, and that’s their tragedy.”McNally’s “Lips Together, Teeth Apart,” about two married couples who spend a weekend on Fire Island, was a landmark play about AIDS. It was also in Corpus Christi that he first heard an opera broadcast from Mexico of singer Maria Callas, who would figure prominently in two of his later dramas, “Lisbon Traviata” and “Master Class.” He started writing plays in high school, one of which he frequently joked about: a musing on George Gershwin, who at the end of the piece married his sweetheart Ira — until an English teacher pointed out that Ira was George’s brother.After receiving a B.A. He was 81. He died on Tuesday at the Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Florida.McNally’s resume was notable for its range, barrier-breaking depictions of gay life, and interest in subjects such as middle-aged romance and opera considered taboo by the commercial theater. He actually wrote some television, including an adaptation of John Cheever’s “The Five Forty-Eight” and the short-lived 1984 sitcom “Mama Malone.”But he slowly returned to the theater, revising the story of a disastrous opening night into “It’s Only a Play,” which was performed in 1982 at Manhattan Punchline and then, more successfully, by Manhattan Theater Club in 1986.That began a fruitful relationship with the Off Broadway company that saw several successive hits including “Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune” in 1987. His career moved from farces like “The Ritz” to thought-provoking, award-winning dramas such as “Love! His play "The Ritz" became one of the first plays with unapologetic gay characters to reach a mainstream audience.McNally also explored gay themes in the book for the musical "Kiss of the Spider Woman," for which he won his first Tony Award. My heart is breaking yet again.” McNally’s 2014 Broadway play “Mothers and Sons” — revisiting McNally’s 1990 TV movie “Andre’s Mother,” which won him an Emmy Award — explores the relationship between a mother and her dead son’s former gay partner. His “It’s Only a Play” was a valentine to theater-making. Playwright Terrence McNally died Tuesday due to complications from COVID-19. Compassion!" He also contributed to opera as a librettist — “The Food of Love” in 1999 with music by Robert Beaser, “Dead Man Walking” in 2000 with music by Jake Heggie, and 2015’s “Great Scott” with Heggie.McNally sometimes was controversial, especially with his play “Corpus Christi,” which depicts a modern-day Jesus as a homosexual. “Sweet Eros,” produced the following year, was extremely controversial, though not because of its storyline: A kidnapper relates his tale to his prey.
Though Terrence McNally came out when he moved to New York City to attend college and then wrote for decades about gay life, the four-time Tony Award-winning playwright had no use for polemics. The tale of two married couples, originally performed at the Manhattan Theater Club, was McNally’s most seamless and affecting blend of comedy and drama. The Manhattan Theater Club, the first company to consider staging it, received death threats and temporarily canceled the production before enjoying a successful run.When picking up his “Ragtime” Tony Award, McNally thanked the theater community for its outcry. A string of successes followed, including “Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?” (1971), “The Tubs” (1974), “Bad Habits” (1974) and “The Ritz” (1975), a farce set in a gay bathhouse that ran more than a year on Broadway and became McNally’s first produced screenplay.His breakout, “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune,” about a romance between a waitress and short order cook, was later adapted into a film starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. (Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File) and "Master Class" and the musicals "Ragtime" and "Kiss of the Spider Woman," has died of complications from the coronavirus. McNally was a lung cancer survivor who lived with chronic inflammatory lung disease.His plays and musicals explored how people connect — or fail to. Compassion!" McNally also wrote the musical bio-revue “Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life,” starring Rivera and based on her life, which ran on the Rialto in 2005-06. He was 81. “A lot of people stop learning in life, and that’s their tragedy.”McNally’s “Lips Together, Teeth Apart,” about two married couples who spend a weekend on Fire Island, was a landmark play about AIDS. It was also in Corpus Christi that he first heard an opera broadcast from Mexico of singer Maria Callas, who would figure prominently in two of his later dramas, “Lisbon Traviata” and “Master Class.” He started writing plays in high school, one of which he frequently joked about: a musing on George Gershwin, who at the end of the piece married his sweetheart Ira — until an English teacher pointed out that Ira was George’s brother.After receiving a B.A. He was 81. He died on Tuesday at the Sarasota Memorial Hospital in Florida.McNally’s resume was notable for its range, barrier-breaking depictions of gay life, and interest in subjects such as middle-aged romance and opera considered taboo by the commercial theater. He actually wrote some television, including an adaptation of John Cheever’s “The Five Forty-Eight” and the short-lived 1984 sitcom “Mama Malone.”But he slowly returned to the theater, revising the story of a disastrous opening night into “It’s Only a Play,” which was performed in 1982 at Manhattan Punchline and then, more successfully, by Manhattan Theater Club in 1986.That began a fruitful relationship with the Off Broadway company that saw several successive hits including “Frankie & Johnny in the Clair de Lune” in 1987. His career moved from farces like “The Ritz” to thought-provoking, award-winning dramas such as “Love! His play "The Ritz" became one of the first plays with unapologetic gay characters to reach a mainstream audience.McNally also explored gay themes in the book for the musical "Kiss of the Spider Woman," for which he won his first Tony Award. My heart is breaking yet again.” McNally’s 2014 Broadway play “Mothers and Sons” — revisiting McNally’s 1990 TV movie “Andre’s Mother,” which won him an Emmy Award — explores the relationship between a mother and her dead son’s former gay partner. His “It’s Only a Play” was a valentine to theater-making. Playwright Terrence McNally died Tuesday due to complications from COVID-19. Compassion!" He also contributed to opera as a librettist — “The Food of Love” in 1999 with music by Robert Beaser, “Dead Man Walking” in 2000 with music by Jake Heggie, and 2015’s “Great Scott” with Heggie.McNally sometimes was controversial, especially with his play “Corpus Christi,” which depicts a modern-day Jesus as a homosexual. “Sweet Eros,” produced the following year, was extremely controversial, though not because of its storyline: A kidnapper relates his tale to his prey.