IT'S ONLY A PLAY, McNally's Hit Comedy, to Take the Stage at The City Theatre Company This Month

The City Theatre Company will continue its 2023 fall theatre season with Terrence McNally's side-splitting Broadway comedy salute It's Only a Play. Hailed by many critics as McNally at the top of his form, the celebrated Broadway show is directed by Jim Lindsay and runs three weekends, October 20 – November 5 at Genesis Creative Collective. Lots of laughs and love with live theatre not to be missed!

New York City, and it's opening night of Peter Austin's new play as he anxiously awaits to see if his Broadway show will be a hit.  With his career on the line, he shares this anxious - but oh so very exciting - evening with his Hollywood star best friend, his fledgling producer, his erratic leading lady, his wunderkind director, an infamous drama critic, and a wide-eyed actor, turned coat-check attendant, on his first night in Manhattan hoping to find his big break. Terrence McNally's hit stage comedy is a celebration of theatre at its best...and theatre people behaving not-so-best. Wild, raucous, ridiculous, tender — reminding us why “there's no business like show business.”

Terrence McNally has had a remarkably far-ranging career spanning six decades, and has always faced high expectations for his work, not just because of his record of success. In 2018 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He is a recipient of the Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award and the Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award. He has won four Tony Awards for his plays Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class and his musical books for Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime. He has received two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, four Drama Desk Awards, two Obie Awards, and three Hull-Warriner Awards from the Dramatists Guild. Along with writers like Larry Kramer, Tony Kushner, and Paul Rudnick, he is credited with exposing largely straight, mainstream audiences to popular gay characters and raising the level of awareness of issues in the gay community, particularly the devastation wrought by the AIDS epidemic. “I don't think theatre can solve the problems of a society, nor should it be expected to,” says McNally. “Plays don't do that. People do.” His other plays include Mothers and Sons, Lips Together, Teeth Apart, The Lisbon Traviata, A Perfect Ganesh, The Visit, The Full Monty, Corpus Christi, Bad Habits, It's Only a Play; Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?, and The Stendhal Syndrome. In 1996 he was inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame.

The production is directed by guest director Jim Lindsay who led City Theatre's smash-hit productions of Pageant and Ruthless, and features the cast of Scot Friedman, Veronica Alvarado Kraemer, Craig Kanne, Rick Smith, Shane Cullum, Lorri Boyd, and DJ DelVecchio. Our little theatre doesn't have many chances like this one. It is an exciting opportunity to stage McNally's work here in Austin,” mentions Andy Berkovsky, City Theatre Artistic Director. “This play is perhaps the funniest and joyous he has ever written.” 

City Theatre is celebrating its 18th anniversary season of live theatre entertainment. CTC is an Austin-based, not-for-profit arts organization and is sponsored in part by the Austin Creative Alliance and the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin. Founded in 2006, the company has been recognized by the Austin Critics Table Awards, the B. Iden Payne Awards, the Central Texas Excellence in Theatre Awards, BroadwayWorld Austin, Central Texas Live Theatre, and has twice been voted “Best Theatre Company” by Austin American-Statesman's Austin 360. CTC is dedicated to providing a quality, reputable, and diverse public theatre and Stage Entertainment experience that is accessible to all artists and the entire Austin community. CTC continues to offer its student and group discount ticket program for any show. Put a little theatre in your life!

SHOW INFORMATION AT A GLANCE

It's Only a Play by Terrence McNally

October 20 – November 5. Thursday - Saturday 8:00 pm. Sunday 3 pm.

Genesis Creative Collective. 1507 Wilshire Blvd. Austin, TX 78722.
General Seating $15-$18. Center Reserved $20-25. Group and student discounts.

Tkts 512-470-1100 or info@citytheatreaustin.org. www.citytheatreaustin.org

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