Terrence McNally

Terrence McNally born 3 November 1939

Terrence McNally is an American playwright.

He was born in St Petersburg, Florida and raised in Texas. In 1956, McNally moved to New York City to attend Columbia University to major in English, graduating in 1960.

After graduation, McNally moved to Mexico to focus on his writing, completing a one-act play which he submitted to The Actor's Studio in New York for production. While the play was turned down by the acting school, the Studio was impressed with the script, and McNally was invited to serve as the Studio's stage manager so that he could gain practical knowledge of theatre. In his early years in New York, he was a protégé of the noted playwright Edward Albee.

Although several early comedies such as Next in 1969 and The Ritz in 1975 won McNally quite a bit of praise, it was not until later in his career that he would become truly successful with works such as Frankie and Johnny at the Claire de Lune for which he wrote the screen adaptation, which starred Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer.

His first credited Broadway musical was The Rink in 1984, a project he came late into once the score by Kander and Ebb had already been written. In 1990, McNally won an Emmy Award for Best Writing in a Miniseries or Special for Andre's Mother. A year later, he returned to the stage with Lips Together, Teeth Apart a study of the irrational fears that many people held towards homosexuals in the early days of the AIDS crisis.

With Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1992, McNally returned his attentions to the musical stage, collaborating with composer John Kander and lyricist Fred Ebb on a script which explores the complex relationship between two men caged together in a Latin American prison. Kiss of the Spider Woman won the 1993 Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. He collaborated with Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens on Ragtime in 1997, a musical adaptation of the novel by E L Doctorow.

McNally's other plays include 1994's Love! Valour! Compassion! which examines the relationships of eight gay men; and Master Class in 1995, a character study of legendary opera soprano Maria Callas which won the 1996 Tony Award for Best Play.

In 1997, McNally stirred up a storm of controversy with Corpus Christi, a modern day retelling of the story of Jesus' birth, ministry, and death in which both he and his disciples are gay. In fact, the play was initially cancelled because of death threats against the board members of the Manhattan Theatre Club, which was to produce the play. However, several other playwrights such as Tony Kushner threatened to withdraw their plays if Corpus Christi was not produced, and the board finally relented. When the play opened, the Theatre was besieged by almost 2,000 protesters, furious at what they considered blasphemy. When Corpus Christi opened in London, a British Muslim group called the Defenders of the Messenger Jesus even went so far as to issue a fatwa on McNally.

His most recent play is Deuce (2007)

In addition to four Tony Awards, McNally has received 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 has been a member of the Dramatists' Guild Council since 1970 and has served as vice-president since 1981. He is considered one of the leading American dramatists still writing today.

McNally is married to Thomas Kirdahy, a lawyer.