Terrence McNally – Playwright, librettist, screenwriter Born November 3, 1938; died March 24, 2020 Terrence McNally, who has died aged 81 from complications of Covid-19, was a Tony award winning playwright, whose slow burn of a career moved through controversy to commercial success. In the former, his early play, And Things That Go Bump in the Night (1965), put gay relationships at its centre at a time when such matters were taboo enough to provoke critical venom. Much later, McNally’s depiction of Jesus and his apostles as gay in Corpus Christi (1998) provoked protests, death threats, condemnation by the Catholic League and attempted cancellation of its scheduled premiere at the Manhattan Theatre. In terms of commercial success, his 1987 play, Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune, saw McNally adapt his two-hander about a one-night stand between a short order chef and a waitress into a film starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer. His book for Kiss of the Spiderwoman
An archive of arts writing by Neil Cooper. Effete No Obstacle.