The most star-studded show in town on May 30 was on East Ninth Street and University Place, which was co-named in honor of the late Terrence McNally during an outdoor ceremony filled with the great gay playwright’s words from his plays and his stirring songs from Broadway musicals.
The co-naming ceremony, on the block where McNally lived between Broadway and University Place until his death in 2020, was led by Broadway producer Tom Kirdahy, McNally’s surviving spouse.
“Terrence loved living here… He needed to be around people who loved art and literature and architecture and music and books and laughter and irreverence and respect and kindness and excellence and compassion,” Kirdahy said. “He loved the fact that there were so many artists and thinkers and students and dreamers in this neighborhood — that this neighborhood was rich with love for the visual and performing arts, the wonder of design, the glory of history and architecture, and neighbors who cared so deeply about democracy, culture, and the world around them.”
Kirdahy introduced artists who reenacted scenes from McNally’s plays: Donna Murphy did a scene as Maria Callas in “Master Class,” while Tony nominees Jonathan Groff (now starring as Bobby Darin in “Just in Time”) and Francis Jue (of “Yellowface”) read, respectively, from “And Things that Go Bump in the Night” and “Love! Valour! Compassion!” Brandon Uranowitz and Caissie Levy sang “Our Children” from “Ragtime,” which Lincoln Center is reviving with them in September.
“Terrence was a gay trailblazer and icon long before it was cool,” said Santino DeAngelo, leader of the Terrence McNally Foundation. “And as we enter into this new period of uncertainty for our queer community it’s going to be more important than ever to remember Terrence’s words and his life. But lucky for us when we need a sign from Terrence we now have one!”
Also paying tribute to McNally were Manhattan Councilmembers Erik Bottcher, who chairs the Council’s LGBTQIA+ Caucus, and Carlina Rivera, who shepherded approval of the co-naming through the local community board and City Council in her East Village district.
Among the friends and neighbors of McNally on hand were actors Matthew Broderick, John Slattery, and Richard Thomas, playwright/actor Lin-Manuel Miranda, gay legal eagles Evan Wolfson and Darren Rosenblum, director Bill Condon, author Grayson Taylor (who starred in “Mothers and Sons”), composer Marc Shaiman, and McNally’s younger brother, Peter McNally, who grew up with Terrence in Corpus Christi, Texas and recalled to us sharing with him a room from which Terrence blasted grand opera into the neighborhood.
Brian Stokes Mitchell, the original Coalhouse Walker in “Ragtime” in 1998, ended the ceremony by singing Coalhouse’s closing anthem “Let Them Hear You!” in a rousing rendition that speaks to a nation in dire need of The Resistance to the current regime.
