More eloquent remembrances of Terrence McNally will be offered by others. Personally, he will always hold a special place in my heart for helping to bring “Ragtime” to the stage, one of the most important pieces of art created in America last century, in my humble opinion, let alone one of our greatest musicals.
It’s cruelly ironic that he died due to COVID-19 given that so much of his career was shaped by another of the great plagues of our time, HIV-AIDS. Robert Drivas, his former lover and the director of two of his early works, “Bad Habits” and “The Ritz,” died from AIDS-related causes in 1986. His close friend, James Coco, would die shortly thereafter from heart disease.
As chronicled in this exhaustive reflection on his career, the desire for connection with another person was at the heart of McNally’s work. It’s appropriate then, perhaps, in this time of social distancing and quarantine, that we reflect on the power of theater to keep us connected. He had some incredible hits on Broadway: the longest-running was “Kiss of the Spider Woman” at 904 performances; “Ragtime” would run for 834 performances and “The Full Monty” for 770. None are on the 1K+ list but still, his lifetime achievement Tony, awarded just last year, was more than well deserved.
PBS created a full-length review of his incredible career in the documentary, “Every Act of Life,” that is available if you are a VPM Passport subscriber. And because a dose of “Ragtime” is never a bad thing, enjoy this clip from Rosie O’Donnell where she appropriately places the show in the canon of all-time greats.
