Terrence McNally: Where to start?- Page 2

[Borstalboy]

Posted: 1/28/15 at 5:38pm

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.


Um, no. The original play ended with Anthony Heald stabbing his ex-lover just like the operas he loves and McNally re-wrote it so that he doesn't stab him. It also had Dan Butler buck-ass nekkid. It's a wonderful play.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/28/15 at 11:38pm

Marin and Jason were adorable together singing We're Gonna Be Alright on the Sondheim birthday concert, and I think they dueted on a recent PBS Kander and Ebb special. It seems kinda odd to sing songs from musicals McNally wrote the book but not the lyrics or music for, but it would make it more entertaining.

Gaveston, what do you think of McNally's far more out-there 1960s plays?

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/30/15 at 8:28pm

Borstal Boy, per Wikipedia you are correct about the off-Broadway production in 1989. (Not that your word wasn't good enough; I was just researching the history of the play.) But by the time the play appeared at the Mark Taper Forum in LA (where I saw it the following year), the play ended with the Nathan Lane character murdering his friend's lover.

IIRC, the printed edition ends with the murder.

It's not that I don't see the problem with yet another play where the flaming, self-hating opera queen offs himself. But I was talking about ways McNally seems to instinctively cater to a middle-class straight audience and the murder, IMO, is an example.

As for Dan Butler, you'll get no argument from me.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/30/15 at 8:29pm

Eric, I don't consider myself an expert, but in general I much prefer McNally's 1960s plays. Success breeds compromise, don't you know?

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 1/30/15 at 10:21pm

I have read them as takes on early Durang or even Wilson (who did it better,) but I think it is interesting how he changed so suddenly towards the commercial. There are zero remnants of Frankie and Johhnie in Lizbon. It's not so much about an artist develiipping--it's schizo (pardon the term.)

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 1:34am

Indeed. I should have mentioned that I think FRANKIE AND JOHNIE is a fine play. It was my introduction to Kathy Bates and unforgettable!

[imeldasturn]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 6:57am

I'm not an expert, but Master Class is really great

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 1/31/15 at 7:33pm

imeldasturn, we've never defined "expert" here, so as far as I'm concerned, you're as good a candidate as any.

But I have to disagree re MASTER CLASS. Perhaps I would have liked it better if I had seen it with Caldwell or Daly, but Faye Dunaway certainly wasn't bad.

I like Dunaway and the pianist was a close friend of mine. And I was bored out of my skull except when the students came on for their lessons. No wonder MacDonald won a Tony!