Terrence McNally: Where to start?

[Fantod]

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!

[dramamama611]

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

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

[After Eight]

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

I think his best is A Perfect Ganesh.

[GavestonPS]

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

[EthelMae]

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

Bad Habits.
Love! Valour! Compassion!

[haterobics]

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...

[Robbie2]

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

[ZiggyCringe]

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.

[Mr Roxy]

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.

[Wilmingtom]

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

The Lisbon Traviata.

[Kad]

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.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

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

What's so important about The Ritz?

[#1CarrieFan]

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

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

[GavestonPS]

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.

[mikem]

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.

[Kad]

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.

[AHLiebross]

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

[FindingNamo]

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.

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

[Bettyboy72]

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.

[EricMontreal22]

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.

[sinister teashop]

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

The Lisbon Traviata.

[canmark]

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

Ditto The Lisbon Traviata.

And Frankie & Johnnny.

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

[Fantod]

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.

[BenjaminNicholas2]

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

[GavestonPS]

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.