Three Plays by Terrence McNally

"Terrence McNally is one of our most original and audacious dramatists and one of our funniest."--The New Yorker

These three stunning plays are a testament to the extraordinary talent and comedic brilliance of Terrence McNally. All produced off-Broadway to great acclaim, his most recent works are gathered here for the first time in a unique collection of drama, romance, and comedy. The Lisbon Traviata is a powerfully moving tragicomedy about a crumbling homosexual marriage. And in Frankie and Johnnie in the Clair de Lune, a man and a woman, "not young, not old, no great beauties, either one," come together in a fresh and witty display of emotional fireworks. McNally himself describes the final piece, the bitingly honest and uproariously funny It's Only a Play, as his "attempt to describe exactly what I was like to work in Broadway in the 1980s." These three unforgettable works, starkly individual yet all charged with brilliant wit and searing intimacy, dazzle us with McNally's wisdom, compassion, and extraordinary brand of comic genius.


About the Author
Terrence McNally is the author of numerous plays, including Love! Valour! Compassion! (winner of the Tony Award for best play), The Ritz, and Frankie and Johnny in the Claire de Lune, which was made into a feature film starring Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeiffer, and the books for the musicals The Rink, and Kiss of the Spider Woman (winner of the Tony Award for the best book of a musical). Other successes include Lips Together, Teeth Apart and The Lisbon Traviata. McNally has received two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He also serves as vice president for the Dramatists Guild, the national orgainzation of playwrights, composers, and lyricists. He lives in New York City.