Two heartrending and humorous plays about friendship, companionship, and love.
In Some Men, Terrence McNally takes us on a multi-generational journey of gay life in America. In interwoven vignettes, McNally uses the same characters at different points in their lives as gay men to address such issues as coming out, marriage, adoption, the military and the AIDS crisis. From a Harlem speakeasy to today's post 9/11 New York, these nine men reflect the enormous changes in all our lives.
In Deuce we meet Leona and Midge--two septuagenarian ladies doubles tennis champions who are reunited to be honored at a U.S. Open. As they watch the next generation of female athletes, these former tennis partners become embroiled in a verbal téte-a-téte as lively and nuanced as any match they ever played. During their exchange the duality of the two characters is revealed; while Midge is refined and tactful, her former doubles partner, Leona, is brazen and fearless. The "deuce" cannot only be found in their tennis game, but also in how they lived their lives.
About the Author :
Terrence McNally was the author of more than 50 plays, screenplays, and libretti. He won five Tony Awards, nominated for two more, and in 2019, he was awarded a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theater. After his death in 2020, the New York Times noted, "Though the changes Mr. McNally wrote about were epochal for gay men, his plays were designed not to exclude. However furious, they are also ingratiating, emphasizing familiar situations, comic personalities and well-turned put-downs." The same notice later identified "Mr. McNally 's mature theme: that tragedy and comedy not only coexist but also, like all of us on earth, cohabit."
Review :
Praise for Some Men:
"Terrence McNally's play Some Men is a superb theatrical experience--an evocative, funny, poignant and wise tour through gay life over the last eighty or so years. Two classes of people would benefit from seeing it: gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered people interested in learning in a very entertaining way what life has been like for us in recent times; and heterosexual people who'd like to learn the same thing." --The Honorable Barney Frank
"A breezy series of sketches . . . droll observations on the difficulties of translating the classic gay sensibility . . . a pageant of the ages á la Noël Coward's Cavalcade." --The New York Times
"Harks back to the knife-edge Absurdism of McNally's own earliest phase; short bursts of excitement are a youthful trait that an oldster can weave into more knowing patterns." --The Village Voice
"A moving and funny encyclopedia of relationships . . . a lush, mixed bouquet of sex, pain, and laughs, and sometimes big laughs happen in the painful parts. Not a quick montage, situations are presented with depth and poignancy." --CurtainUp
"Funny and thoughtful . . . gripping . . . excellent touches throughout, heartbreaking scenes and funny ones." --Talkin' Broadway
"A resounding success . . . The history of the gay mainstream has probably never had a fuller telling onstage than here." --The New York Blade
"A chronicle of gay life in America over the past eighty years . . . a lively, invaluable, fast-moving history lesson that manages to instruct and entertain at the same time. Emotionally compelling, often quite funny." --Associated Press
"A thoughtful, amusing and often touching celebration." --The Bergen Record
"The most sincere and authentic examination of its kind ever to find its way to the stage. Its rare honesty and candor make it one of the best plays McNally has written and one of the best plays of the season." --nytheatre.com
"Terrence McNally develops his panoramic study in typically fluent, thoughtful and compassionate terms. As in life and love, abundant humor helps make this uplifting drama go." --The Star-Ledger
Praise for Deuce:
"A play that kept me thoroughly entertained and engaged throughout . . . relevant, entertaining, and attractive as its two trump cards." --Robert Osborne, The Hollywood Review
"Without ever getting polemical or falling back on obvious clichés, the playwright talks about perceptions of aging (by both those going through it and the younger ones looking at them), inequities between men and women, the commercialization and mass marketing of sports (and the so-called progress that's commensurate with that), racism, and homophobia. . . . McNally meditates here on what makes some people extraordinary and worthy of our worshipful gaze. . . . One of the best new dramas of this particular season. For me, it's the most fulfilling theatre event of the year, one I will cherish and that I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to see." --Martin Denton, nytheatre.com
"Advantage McNally . . . McNally delivers a consistently intriguing, wide-ranging meditation on contemporary life, media, aging, and the lost art of personal grace--even when the language gets a little salty. . . . McNally writes two mature characters that are not maudlin, sentimental, or cute in any way." --Christopher Byrne, Gay City News
Praise for Terrence McNally:
"Mr. McNally is an extraordinary playwright. His plays are witty, compassionate and always written with a stunning love of the theatre. --Wendy Wasserstein
"Terrence McNally is one of our most original and audacious dramatists and one of our funniest." --The New Yorker
"We must be oh, so grateful for Terrence McNally, master of the high-wire act. His vision celebrates the bravery of lonely souls; his voice resounds with the anguish and joy of life itself. Out of the mundane, he shapes the opera of the human heart. I look with wonder at this body of work." --Swoosie Kurtz
