Terrence McNally: Where to start?

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Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/25/15 at 9:33pm

So I want to read some plays that Terrence McNally has written, and I just would like to know which play (or plays) you recommend I read first that are both good and give a good impression of his style. I've already read Kiss of the Spider Woman and The Rink, but I want to read some of his plays.

Thanks so much!

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/25/15 at 9:37pm

Some of my favorites include:
Deuce
Frankie & Jonnny in the Clair Dr Lube
Master Class

If we're not having fun, then why are we doing it? These are DISCUSSION boards, not mutual admiration boards. Discussion only occurs when we are willing to hear what others are thinking, regardless of whether it is alignment to our own thoughts.

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/25/15 at 9:40pm

I think his best is A Perfect Ganesh.

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/25/15 at 9:43pm

I don't believe McNally has written any good plays. (Well, somebody has to take over if After Eight is going to go soft on us.)

THE RITZ has some laughs.

Updated On: 1/26/15 at 09:43 PM

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/25/15 at 10:19pm

Bad Habits.
Love! Valour! Compassion!

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/25/15 at 11:12pm

I did enjoy L!V!C! when it first came out, but I haven't revisited it in forever to see if it help up...

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/26/15 at 2:38am

Some of his best writing and my favorites:
A Perfect Ganesh
Master Class
Love Valour Compassion
Mothers & Sons
Lips Together, Teeth Apart
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune

"Anything you do, let it it come from you--then it will be new." Sunday in the Park with George

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/26/15 at 4:57am

Nobody said "The Ritz????:

It's his most important play, if a little frivolous. Watch the movie. The flick is on "Netflix," and Rita Moreno is to die for.

If you are really curious, go back to "Things That Go Bump In the Night."

Then "Lips Together, Teeth Apart," "Master Class," "Frankie and Johnny," and "Love, Valour, Compassion." Skip "Duece" at all costs.

And he wrote two of the best books for musicals ever: "Ragtime" and "The Full Monty."

After you have gotten your fill of McNally, start with Lanford Wilson. Begin with "Fifth of July," one of the best gay plays ever written.

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/26/15 at 9:38am

If you could get a copy of it (doubtful),start with the musical version of East Of Eden called Here's Where I Belong. It was a 60's musical that opened and closed the same night.McNally asked his name be removed from the credits.

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#10

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/26/15 at 3:31pm

The Lisbon Traviata.

#11

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/26/15 at 3:49pm

"I don't believe McNally has written any good plays."

As often I do, I agree with you! The one-two-three punch of seeing Mothers & Sons, It's Only a Play, and Lips Together, Teeth Apart within a year solidified this for me.

He's one of America's most prolific mediocre playwrights. I find most his plays, even his most successful, have a sort of toothless, preaching-to-the-choir self-indulgence.

He does slightly better with his contributions as a bookw riter for shows, if only because of the constraints.

"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."

#12

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/26/15 at 4:14pm

What's so important about The Ritz?

#13

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/26/15 at 6:13pm

At the top of my list would be Ragtime, Master Class and Love, Valour, Compassion

#14

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/26/15 at 6:24pm

"What's so important about The Ritz?"

I don't think it's so bad, CarrieFan; I accidentally typed THE RINK instead. I've fixed the error.

***

Kad, I think McNally long ago learned to write for the MTC subscription audience in a fashion that makes them the center of the world without really threatening them.

LIPS TOGETHER TEETH APART -- AIDS makes straights people nervous. With friends and my brother dropping dead around me, I can't tell you how little I cared about everyone's anxiety.

I haven't seen the most recent plays, but some of his earlier ones (ANDRE'S MOTHER) end up being about how gay people are intolerant of their homophobic parents.

In LISBON TRAVIATA, McNally specifically changed the ending so that Nathan Lane wasn't SUICIDAL (which might have said something about gay stereotypes) but HOMICIDAL (thus confirming the fears of the MTC subscribers that we are all dangerously unbalanced.

Etc. and so forth. MO, obviously. And I don't give him a pass on the book for SPIDERWPMAN, but that rant requires its own thread.

#15

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/26/15 at 6:33pm

After Eight, I think McNally might agree with you. I went to a talkback with McNally several years ago. I don't remember the exact question or wording of the response, but McNally said that he felt particularly good about A Perfect Ganesh.

"What was the name of that cheese that I like?" "you can't run away forever...but there's nothing wrong with getting a good head start" "well I hope and I pray, that maybe someday, you'll walk in the room with my heart"

#16

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/26/15 at 6:35pm

Lips Together has to be one of the least realistic depiction of heterosexual people ever. Every line is written with such a dated camp archness.

"...everyone finally shut up, and the audience could enjoy the beginning of the Anatevka Pogram in peace."

#17

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/27/15 at 1:44am

I just reviewed a local theatre company's production of Love! Valour! Compassion! Here is a link to the review:

https://www.broadwayworld.com/los-angeles/article/BWW-Reviews-Desert-Rose-Presents-a-Moving-Production-of-LOVE-VALOUR-COMPASSION-20150123

Audrey, the Phantom Phanatic, who nonetheless would rather be Jean Valjean, who knew how to make lemonade out of lemons.

#18

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/27/15 at 1:47am

Ugh. I find him so frustrating. At his very best he's "good enough."

I think "L!V!C!" is a "P!O!S!".

"I hope you get AIDS! I hope you get what my brother has."

That has never failed to make me guffaw.

Twitter @NamoInExile Instagram none

Updated On: 1/27/15 at 01:47 AM

#19

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/27/15 at 2:15am

He writes for straight people of the 70s and 80s. I've never cared for any of his work. It's always felt preachy and odd. The characters never felt real. Mothers and Sons was just heinous. It was three archetypes reciting preachy diatribes.

I do feel his work helped forward the gay movement and helped straight people develop some compassion for the LGBT community, so I give him his props. However, I avoid his plays like the plague.

"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal "I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello

#20

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/27/15 at 5:37pm

The Ritz was fun. And I saw a production of A Perfect Ganesh when I was 12 which I loved at the time, but have never gone back to. Otherwise I agree with much of what's been said here. I do think he's a good musical book writer when he has the material--I like Kiss of the Spiderwoman (Gaveston knows we disagree on this, though I think he has some good points,) and Ragtime works well for me.

It seems that around the time of The Ritz' success (I can't be sure as I don't really know the all of his plays by any means,) he did start playing it more safe. Certainly a few years ago I read a bunch of his early plays and was kinda surprised at how out there and surreal they were.

Things That Go Bump In the Night was mentioned, which seems to have been savaged by the critics, but it's interesting to read as an example of 1960s queer theatre. Bad Habits, WHere has Tommy Flowers Gone and Witness/Sweet Eros (which featured Sally Kirkland nude for much of the second play--she has claimed it was the first time so much nudity was featured on the New York commercial stage,) follows a kinda similar style.

I wouldn't say any of the plays are great--and there are better examples of similarly stylized plays from the time that McNally seemed inspired by, but they certainly are more interesting to read than much of his recent stuff.

#21

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/27/15 at 9:00pm

The Lisbon Traviata.

#22

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/27/15 at 10:15pm

Ditto The Lisbon Traviata.

And Frankie & Johnnny.

Coach Bob knew it all along: you've got to get obsessed and stay obsessed. You have to keep passing the open windows. (John Irving, The Hotel New Hampshire)

Updated On: 1/27/15 at 10:15 PM

#23

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/27/15 at 10:21pm

Thanks all so much for your help. I think I will get The Ritz, The Lisbon Traviata, and A Perfect Ganesh to start and go from there.

#24

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/27/15 at 10:55pm

Or, better yet, if you're in the area of Key West FL, ask McNally yourself! :)

Waterfront Playhouse is doing a 75th anniversary benefit Q&A with the playwright, along with special guest performances by Marin Mazzie & Jason Danieley.

https://www.waterfrontplayhouse.org/news/marin-mazzie-and-jason-danieley-to-join-terrence-mcnally-at-the-waterfront-playhouse/

Updated On: 1/27/15 at 10:55 PM

#25

Terrence McNally: Where to start?

Posted: 1/28/15 at 2:25am

Mazzie and Danielly are great together. I'm sure they will be the best part of the evening.

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