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A plastic tube snaked under his nose; an oxygen tank hung at his side.
It was a beauty.
He died on Tuesday at 81 of complications from the coronavirus.
In that 2019 speech, he had opened with a joke.
Lifetime achievement, he said, dryly.
Not a moment too soon.
his dramatic magnum opus, a three-hour-long estate tragicomedy in the (first) era of AIDS.
These are Great Shouts about death and age and disappointment and disease.
How did I ever think they were gentle?
The writing wasnt just intelligent it was meant to reach a wide audience.
He was not a man afraid of being popular or being a success, says Bishop.
He loved that and rightly so.
And yet he also wrote from a point of view of seriousness and earnestness and deep feeling.
What did he love?
The emotions, and that people wore their hearts on their sleeve, he said.
I like frank emotional stuff.
It lasted 16 performances.
In 1967, though, he put his playNextinto the hands of Elaine May.
He said, It makes a very moving case, and that was a big deal for me.
It was the only time that he hinted that there might be some … accommodation.
Ive felt a great gratitude to Terrence for that.
McNally also wrote for five decades without painting himself into a single style.
He was a bit of a chameleon trying out new forms and new shapes.
We were his artistic home, she says.
Joe Mantello wrote to me saying, Were lucky, says Meadow.
Were lucky and very proud.
His plays will be done; he will be celebrated.
And he loved to be celebrated.
But she ended with an early memory.
In 19723 at Manhattan Theatre Club, I did 23 plays in seven weeks, she says.
The highlight was Terrence McNallys playBad Habits.I was 24 or 25 years old; it was my first season.
He was so adorable, so arrogant!
He lookedjustlike a Columbia student who had just written the Varsity Show, which of course he had.
I had no idea what a role he would play in the American theater.
I just remember that sweet face.
