Playwright Terrence McNally, the Tony-winning writer of Love! Valour! Compassion!, Master Class and the books for the musicals Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime, has passed away due to complications from the Covid-19 Virus.
Last year McNally was the recipient of a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement. Ironically his first words in his acceptance speech were “Lifetime achievement – not a moment too soon.”
I had the privilege of speaking with McNally in 2013 when he was being celebrated by Skylight Theatre. You can read that interview here. But not everything discussed makes it into any column. So here are some gems that I wasn’t able to include from our conversation.
Stephen Sondheim stated that the problem with awards and honors is that they cut both ways. They could be useful when you’re getting started to let you know you’re on the right track and can make you complacent and allow you to fall back on your previous work instead of inspiring you. What’s your view?
I guess rewards coming a little earlier in your career maybe could be helpful. I just don’t feel that way about getting lazy. I have two plays coming later this year. I’m just as excited as I was in my younger years. The first part, everybody’s career is what it is meant to be and turns out as it should. My first play was a colossal failure. The Hollywood version is you come to New York and it’s a smash. I feel appreciated. I’m one of those people when I get an honor I’m very grateful. I’d never pull a Marlon Brando.
[McNally’s And Away We Go opened in November of 2013 at the Pearl Theatre. Mothers and Sons and It’s Only a Play opened in 2015]
How has theatre addressing gay themes advanced the acceptance of the LGBTQ community?
It’s part and parcel of what happens in our society. I think there’s no gay theatre anymore. It’s so accepted. My first play, Things That Go Bump In the Night, had gay characters and that was shocking. It used to be you could have a gay play and expect the community to support you. It’s not true anymore, it has to also be a good play. Or a good restaurant. Or a good dry cleaners. You have got to be good. That’s a big change. There’s still such a thing as a gay community, but it’s changed its needs and wants, but it is very different than it was when it started.
What role does political correctness play in theatre today?
Any restraints a writer puts on himself is put there by himself. With Corpus Christi [a controversial 1997 McNally play which presented Jesus and the Apostles as gay men living in present-day Texas] I didn’t succumb to the pressures there. Don’t let them allow you to lose your nerve! The main thing a writer has to have is self-confidence. Fear doesn’t belong in the arts. Some of our not-for-profit theatres are playing it safe and not taking risks. They should be taking the biggest risks. They should be doing new work with the best possible actors.
What’s your opinion of the state of Broadway today?
I think everyone finds it frustrating. The costs just keep going up, up, up. I don’t know what’s to be done about it. I’m not an economist. I don’t know that solution. Broadway is not really on my radar when I’m writing a play. I’ve never written thinking it should go on Broadway. We need tough producers who know how to balance the budget, the merchandise; all these things that didn’t seem as important in the 1960s as they are now. I’m an artist and I make things that didn’t exist. We’re trying to find new venues to make our lives possible. Broadway seems hostile to doing a new American play.
At this point in your career are you still hungry? How important are risks for you?
Every time you start a new play you’re embarking on a journey you don’t know how it’s going to end. The challenge is to keep being bold and challenging myself.
Thank you Mr. McNally for not just challenging yourself, but all of us. Rest In Peace, sir.
Terrence McNally: Every Act of Life, a documentary about the playwright, is essential viewing for fans and can be found on multiple streaming platforms. PBS is making the documentary available through April 1st here.
Photo of Terrence McNally in the Martin Beck Theatre by Martha Swope/Courtesy of the New York Public Library Archives
