Terrence McNally 1938-2020 | In Memoriam
Monday, Apr 06, 2020
Juilliard Journal
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An inaugural program meeting, in 1994, of Juilliard's then-recently revamped playwriting program; pictured are Terrence McNally (second from right), John Guare (left), and Kathy Kaplan (third from right)
McNally was a mentor to Juilliard‘s playwriting program
Terrence McNally (faculty 1993-94), a Tony- and Obie-winning playwright whose career spanned nearly six decades, died in Sarasota, Florida, March 24 of complications from COVID-19. He was 81. Audra McDonald (BM ’93, voice), who starred in the 2019 Broadway revival of McNally’s play Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, tweeted: “My dear sweet brilliant kind Terrence. The world is not nearly as sweet of a place without you in it. My heart is breaking yet again.”
McNally’s long connection with Juilliard included helping start the playwriting program, teaching, and receiving an honorary doctorate in 1998 and a president’s medal in 2005. One of his many well-known plays was Master Class, the story of a Maria Callas master class at Juilliard in the 1971-72 school year, which won 1996 Tonys for best play and for Audra McDonald’s performance as a Juilliard student.
Born in St. Petersburg, Florida, on November 3, 1938, McNally developed a love for theater early. He graduated from Columbia, where he wrote for the Varsity Show and graduated Phi Beta Kappa. While McNally’s first play, And Things That Go Bump in the Night, was a flop Off-Broadway, he followed it up with a string of (mostly) hits off and on Broadway. They included The Ritz, Bad Habits, The Lisbon Traviata, and the Tony-winning Love! Valour! Compassion!
McNally not only wrote groundbreaking, compassionate, and funny plays about gay life before, during, and after the height of the AIDS crisis, he also wrote opera librettos; scripts for film and television; and the books of several successful musicals, including The Rink, The Full Monty, and Anastasia. His books for Kiss of the Spider Woman (1993) and Ragtime (1998) also earned him Tonys.
In addition to McDonald, just a few of the many Juilliard alumni who acted in McNally’s plays include Patti Lupone (Pre-College ’67; Group 1), who played Maria Callas in Master Class; Christine Baranski (Group 3), who was in It’s Only a Play and Lips Together, Teeth Apart; and John Benjamin Hickey (Group 18), who was in Love! Valour! Compassion!
McNally, who had battled lung cancer, is survived by his husband, Tom Kirdahy. The Juilliard community sends its condolences.
Kevin Filipski is Juilliard’s program editor