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