Terrence McNally

Terrence McNally (1938-2020) was the recipient of the 2019 Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement, the 2019 Dramatist Guild Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2019 Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2018, he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

He won four Tony Awards, for his plays Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class and his musical books for Kiss of the Spider Woman (music and lyrics by Kander & Ebb) and Ragtime (music and lyrics by Ahrens & Flaherty). Prior to Anastasia, he also collaborated with Ahrens & Flaherty on the award-winning musical A Man of No Importance.

Broadway credits include the book for The Visit (with Kander & Ebb); Mothers & Sons starring Tyne Daly; Deuce starring Angela Lansbury; The Full Monty (music and lyrics by David Yazbek); The Ritz and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (most recently revived in 2019 with Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon).

His other plays include Corpus Christi; A Perfect Ganesh; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; Golden Age; The Lisbon Traviata and It's Only a Play, all of which began at the Manhattan Theatre Club. Additional stage works include Bad Habits; Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?; Things That Go Bump in the Night; Next and the book for the musical The Rink (Kander & Ebb).

His libretto for Dead Man Walking, with music by Jake Heggie, was originally presented by The San Francisco Opera in 2000 and is slated to debut at the Metropolitan Opera in the 2020-2021 season.

McNally wrote a number of television scripts, including Andre's Mother, for which he won an Emmy Award. He received two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Rockefeller Grant, a Lucille Lortel Award, and a citation from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. From 1970 to 2020, he was a member of the Dramatists Guild; he served as the Vice President of its council for 17 years.

His play Immortal Longings will premiere at Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Florida in spring 2021.