Terrence McNally and Longtime Partner Tom Kirdahy Wed in D.C.

Famed Playwright Terrence McNally, who has been writing about gay issues for a good portion of his prolific career, wed his longtime boyfriend, Broadway producer and lawyer Tom Kirdahy, 46, in Washington D.C. yesterday, April 6, 2010 along the Potomac River.  Washington D.C. just recently legalized same-sex marriage.

During the small ceremony, Kirdahy reportedly read from McNally's play "Corpus Christi," in which a gay Jesus-like figure marries two apostles: "It is good when two men love as James and Bartholomew do and we recognize their union...Love each other in sickness and in health."

Actors Tyne Daly, who is currently starring in McNally's Master Class at the Kennedy Center and John Glover and Malcolm Gets, both starring in his Traviata at the Kennedy Center, bore witness to the ceremony, led by Rev. George Walker of the People's Congregational United Church of Christ.

McNally and Kirdahy were civilly united in Vermont in 2001, but are happy to officially be married. Says McNally of the event: "We want the 'M' word...We don't like separate but equal. We want equal." The marriage will be recognized in New York City.

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is presenting Terrence McNally's Nights at the Opera - an event showcasing three of the playwright's works including Master Class, The Lisbon Traviata, and Golden Age concurrently in Kennedy Center theaters from through April 18, 2010. Directors include Walter Bobbie for Master Class and Christopher Ashley for The Lisbon Traviata. For tickets and more information, visit www.kennedy-center.org.

Playwright Terrence McNally has received four Tony Awards®, two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, the Lucille Lortel Award, the Hull-Warriner Award, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

He won an Emmy Award® for his television film Andre's Mother in 1990. A year later, he returned to writing for the stage with Lips Together, Teeth Apart. In 1992, Mr. McNally collaborated with John Kander and Fred Ebb on the script for the 1993 Tony Award®-winning musical Kiss of the Spider Woman, as well as on the script for the musical The Rink. Additionally, in collaboration with Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens, he wrote the book for the musical Ragtime for which he won the 1998 Tony Award® for Best Book of a Musical. His other plays include Love! Valour! Compassion! in 1994, Corpus Christi in 1997, and the play and screen adaptation of Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune.

 

Photo Credit: Walter McBride/Retna Ltd.

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