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Terrence McNally

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Playwright

The Resume

    (November 3, 1938-March 24, 2020)
    Born in St. Petersburg, Florida
    Wrote the plays ‘And Things That Go Bump in the Night’ (1964), ‘Next’ (1968), ‘Bringing It All Back Home’ (1969), ‘Bad Habits’ (1974), ‘The Ritz’ (1975), ‘Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune’ (1982), ‘It’s Only a Play’ (1986), ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ (1992), ‘Love! Valour! Compassion!’ (1994), ‘Ragtime’ (1996), ‘Master Class’ (1995), ‘Corpus Christi’ (1998), ‘The Full Monty’ (2000), ‘A Man of No Importance’ (2002), ‘Deuce’ (2007), ‘Catch Me If You Can’ (2011), and ‘Mothers and Sons’ (2014)
    Composed libretti for the operas ‘Dead Man Walking’ (2000) and ‘Great Scott’ (2015)
    Inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame (1996)

Why he might be annoying:

    There were rumors that his early plays were partially written by his lover, established dramatist Edward Albee.
    Audiences for ‘Love! Valour! Compassion!’ were exposed to the bare ass of either Nathan Lane (the Broadway show) or <874>Jason Alexander<874> (the film adaptation).
    In ‘Corpus Christi,’ he depicted Jesus and his disciples as gay.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He dedicated several plays to his high school English teacher, Maurice McElroy.
    A Moslem group calling itself ‘Defenders of the Messenger Jesus’ issued a fatwa calling for his death over ‘Corpus Christi.’ (A fatwa? That’s so 1989.)
    He won two Tonys for Best Play for ‘Love! Valour! Compassion!’ and ‘Master Class,’ and two Tonys for Best Book of a Musical for ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ and ‘Ragtime.’
    He said, ‘To me, the most significant thing a writer can do is reach someone emotionally.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 38 Votes: 52.63% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 10 Votes: 80.0% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 48 Votes: 43.75% Annoying