Terrance McNally was one of America’s most celebrated playwrights.
Terrence McNally died on this day in 2020, aged 81. His death was attributed to COVID-19.
McNally was a five-time Tony Award winner. His plays Love! Valor! Compassion! and Master Class won the Tony Award for Best Play, while he was also recognised for writing the books for the musicals Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime. In 2019, he received the Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement.
His career spanned six decades, and his plays, musicals, and operas are regularly performed around the world.
McNally’s career got a head start when he was hired by novelist John Steinbeck to tutor Steinbeck’s two teenage sons while the family took a cruise around the world. During the journey, he began writing the opening act of what would become And Things That Go Bump in the Night. Steinbeck also asked him to write the libretto for a musical version of his acclaimed novel East of Eden.
His first play explored homosexual relationships and society’s attitudes; it was not a success. However, his subsequent works found greater acclaim, and audiences engaged more with his writing. Next, Botticelli, Cuba Si!, Sweet Eros, Let It Bleed, Witness, Bringing It All Back Home, Whiskey, Noon, Bad Habits, and It’s Only a Play are among the works he created in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s.
In 1975, he wrote The Ritz, a farce in which a straight man inadvertently finds refuge in a gay sauna. The following year, it was adapted into a film.
As the AIDS crisis dominated gay life in New York in the 1980s, McNally, like many artists, reflected the world around him in his work.
His career grew from strength to strength. In 1987, he wrote Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune. The Broadway production starred F. Murray Abraham and Kathy Bates. When it was adapted into a film, Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer were cast in the lead roles.
In 1988, he authored Andre’s Mother, a play about a woman who cannot come to terms with her son’s death from HIV or share her grief with her son’s lover. The Lisbon Traviata starred frequent collaborator Nathan Lane and explored opera fans, gay relationships, and their love of Maria Callas.
1991’s Lips Together, Teeth Apart focused on two married couples sharing a house on New York’s Fire Island, surrounded by the LGBTIQA+ community. The original cast included Christine Baranski, Swoosie Kurtz, Nathan Lane, and Anthony Heald.
McNally collaborated with Kander and Ebb on the musical The Rink, but their greatest success came with Kiss of the Spider Woman, a musical adaptation of the Manuel Puig novel. It explores the complex relationship between two men sharing a prison cell.
More success came with 1994’s Love! Valor! Compassion!, which explores the relationships between eight gay men. The following year, he scored another major hit with Master Class, a character study of opera singer Maria Callas. Protesters gathered outside the Broadway production of Corpus Christi; the controversial play explores the life of Jesus, with all his disciples portrayed as homosexual.
Over his career, the prolific McNally created almost 40 plays, 10 musicals, and four operas, adapted three of his works for the big screen, and worked on four television projects.
William Hurt wins the Oscar for ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’
In 1986, actor William Hurt won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his leading role in Kiss of the Spider Woman. It was the first time anyone had won an Oscar for portraying a gay character.
The film is based on the 1976 novel by Manuel Puig, which depicts the daily conversations between two men in an Argentinian prison. Set in late 1975, it brings to life the story of Luis Molina, who is imprisoned for corrupting a minor, and Valentín Arregui, a political prisoner.
After finding success with his novel, Puig adapted it for the stage. It was then transformed into a Hollywood film, and later into an award-winning Broadway musical. The book for the musical was written by Terrence McNally, while the music was created by John Kander and Fred Ebb—the team behind Chicago and Cabaret.
A film version of the musical was released in 2025. It starred Jennifer Lopez, Diego Luna, and Tonatiuh. The film was not a success at the box office grossing just $2 million against a budget of $30 million.
It was also on this day in 1976 that a military coup in Argentina began seven years of brutal dictatorship. During this time, LGBT meeting places were frequently raided, and it is estimated that more than 400 gay men were kidnapped, tortured, and killed by authorities.
