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Terrence McNally

TERRENCE MCNALLY

  (1939 - )
Nationality:    USA
email:    n/a     Website:    Click here

Literary Agent:    William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, LLC  

"there are so many rules about playwriting. I'd have a nervous breakdown if I followed them." - Terrence McNally. Born in St. Petersburg, FL on November 3, 1939. Educated at Columbia University, BA., 1960. Recipient: Stanley Award; Guggenheim Fellow-ships (twice); Obie Award, Bad Habits; Achieve-ment in Playwriting Citation, American Academy of Arts and Letters and the National Institute of Arts and Letters for the Ritz; Hull-Warriner Award.

Research:    Member of the Dramatists Guild of America (as at 2015)

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below is a list of Terrence McNally's plays - click on a Play Title for more information

         And Away We Go         And Things That Go Bump In the Night         Andre's Mother         Apple Pie         Bad Habits: Ravenswood And Dunelawn         Botticelli         Bringing It All Back Home         Broadway, Broadway         Catch Me If You Can         Chita Rivera: the Dancer's Life         Corpus Christi         Cuba Si!         Dawn         Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams         Deuce         Don't Fall For the Lights         Dunelawn         Dusk         Faith, Hope And Charity         Frankie And Johnny In the Clair De Lune         Full Frontal Nudity         Full Monty, The         Golden Age         Here's Where I Belong         Hidden Agendas         Hope         In Your Arms         It's Only A Play         Kiss Of the Spider Woman         Lady Of the Camellias, The         Last Gasps         Let It Bleed         Lips Together, Teeth Apart         Lisbon Traviata, The         Love! Valour! Compassion!         Man Of No Importance, A         Master Class         Mothers and Sons         Next         Noon         Perfect Ganesh, A         Plaisir D'Amour         Prelude And Liebstod         Ragtime         Ravenswood         Rink, The         Ritz, The         Roller Coaster, The         Some Men         Stendhal Syndrome, The         Street Talk         Sunday Times, The         Sweet Eros         Sweet Talk         Things That Go Bump In the Night         Tour         Unusual Acts of Devotion         Up In Saratoga         Visit, The         Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?         Whiskey         Wibbly, Wobbly Wiggly Dance That Cleopatterer Did, The         Witness
And Away We Go

Synopsis:
Times change, but life in the theatre remains the same: chaotic, sometimes brutal, but often euphoric, too. AND AWAY WE GO jumps through time from backstage in ancient Athens to a rehearsal at the Globe, from Versailles' Royal Theatre to the first reading of a new play by Chekhovwith an unlikely stop in Coral Gables and the American premiere of Waiting for Godot along the way.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, Inc.   

Music:
-

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Genre:
comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  with doubling

Further Reference:
-

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And Things That Go Bump In the Night

Synopsis:
the play is about fear and negation. Ruby is its hero, Sigfrid and Grandpa its conscience, Clarence and Lakme its victims. It is also a play about choice: the choice of evil, which is a constant, over chaos, which is not necessarily a good. It is a tragedy of intelligence. Ruby perceives too clearly many truths but does not see the basic one: We cannot destroy everything without destroying ourselves. Her error is her negation of all links with mankind. Her way of life must end as it does, in a colossal suicide. Her Message to the World has come true. For herself, for Sigfrid, for all of them. But she does not flinch before the steady trend of her approaching fate. She will not grovel. She cannot beg. She meets it head-on and defiant, like a female Prometheus.

Notes:
aka there Is Something Out there

1st Produced:
Tyrone Guthrie Theatre, Mineapolis     1964

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "the Ritz and Other Plays", Dodd Mead, New York, 1976   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Andre's Mother

Synopsis:
about the person who is often forgotten in HIV/AIDS Dramas - the mother who can neither understand, accept nor forgive.

Notes:
in Urban Revue

1st Produced:
New York     1988

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "the Way We Live Now", Theatre Communications Group, New York, 1990   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Ten Min. - - AIDS, one act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Apple Pie

Synopsis:
In TOUR, we encounter an American couple being chauffeured through Italy, imagining themselves to be ambassadors of good will despite their fatuous, patronizing chatter. Mixed in with their inane comments, to their driver and others, are references to their son in Vietnam and to the carnage there; but somehow they remain unable to comprehend the reality of the world they live in-and to be comfortable with the sense of privilege their money and freedom provide. (2 men (plus 2 bits), 1 woman) NEXT is set in an Army Induction Center, where an overweight, over-age, and overwrought draftee has reluctantly reported for his physical. Confronted by an Amazon-like female sergeant, he tries every evasion he can think of to disqualify himself, but is ultimately shattered by the realization that nothing will stave off the inevitable. His final monologue, a harrowing exposure of bitterness and confusion, reveals the dilEmma of a man to whom the meaning and purpose of his country have become unclear. (1 man (plus 3 bits), 1 woman) BOTTICELLI finds two American soldiers in the wilds of Vietnam (or any battle area) playing an intellectual guessing game while waiting for a trapped enemy soldier to show himself. they smoke, reminisce, play their game and wait. When the enemy soldier appears they coolly shoot him down and then go on reciting the great names of literature, philosophy and music; their total lack of reverence and concern for the man they have killed, the life they have taken, contrasting starkly with the humanistic concepts and erudition to which they have been exposed. (2 men (plus 1 bit)). the plays can be produced separately as one-acts, or all together on a single bill. This latter basis is the only one on which the omnibus title, APPLE PIE, may be used.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Three Short Plays One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Bad Habits: Ravenswood And Dunelawn

Synopsis:
In the first play, Dunelawn, we are in an expensive retreat for the unhappily married, where the wheel-chaired director, Dr. Pepper, dispenses a definitely unique sort of marital guidance. His theory includes complete indulgence of such "bad habits" as smoking, drinking and sexual promiscuity - which seems to work wonders for his patients, whose wacky case histories are each examined in hilarious detail. In the second play, Ravenswood, the approach is quite the opposite. Here the saintly Dr. Toynbee injects his straight-jacketed charges with tranquilising drugs to calm such urges - but again the catalogue of aberrations revealed in his patients is subjected to close, and enormously funny, scrutiny.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
East Hampton, New York     1971

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1974   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Two Plays One Act

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Botticelli

Synopsis:
finds two American soldiers in the wilds of Vietnam (or any battle area) playing an intellectual guessing game while waiting for a trapped enemy soldier to show himself. they smoke, reminisce, play their game and wait. When the enemy soldier appears they coolly shoot him down and then go on reciting the great names of literature, philosophy and music; their total lack of reverence and concern for the man they have killed, the life they have taken, contrasting starkly with the humanistic concepts and erudition to which they have been exposed.

Notes:
televised 1968

1st Produced:
Los Angeles     1971

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Sweet Eros, Next, and Other Plays", Random House, New York, 1969   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Booksellers:

Genre:
One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  1 bit

Further Reference:
-

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Bringing It All Back Home

Synopsis:
While brother and sister bicker meanly about pot-smoking and illicit pregnancies at their high school, Father makes leering phone calls to strangers, and mother blots it all out with a portable hair dryer. then the coffin with the body of their eldest son, Jimmy, who died in Vietnam, is delivered-followed by a television crew to film a human interest feature on the family's grief. Reacting on cue they make much of their loss and the noble sacrifice this embodies, but with a glib superficiality which is both saddening and shocking. their attention soon shifts to more immediate concerns, however, and Jimmy rises up in his coffin to address the audience. He knows now that the reason he wishes he were still alive is so he can figure out why he is dead-and so, perhaps should we all.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New Haven, Connecticut     1969

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Three Plays", Dramatists Play Service, New York, 1990   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy One Act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  (plus 4 non-speaking roles for men

Further Reference:
-

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Broadway, Broadway

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York     1978

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Catch Me If You Can

Catch Me If You Can
Catch Me If You Can is based on the book and hit 2002 DreamWorks film of the same name directed by Stephen Spielberg with screenplay by Jeff Nathanson and book by Frank Abagnale, Jr. Catch Me If You Can captures the astonishing true story of Frank Abagnale, Jr., a world-class con artist who passed himself off as a doctor, a lawyer, and a jet pilot - all before the age of 21. With straight-arrow FBI agent Carl Hanratty on Frank's trail, we're off on a jet-setting, cat-and-mouse chase, as a jazzy, swinging-'60s score keeps this adventure in constant motion. In the end, Agent Hanratty learns he and Frank aren't so very different after all, and Frank finds out what happens when love catches up to a man on the run
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
Book By: Terrence McNally; Lyrics By: Scott Wittman And Marc Shaiman; Music By: Marc Shaiman

1st Produced:
Neil Simon Theatre, NY, Usa     2011

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
Original cast recording: Ghostlight 2011

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Chita Rivera: the Dancer's Life

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Written by Terrence McNally; Original Songs by: Lynn Ahrens And Stephen Flaherty

1st Produced:
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, NY     11 Dec 2005

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Corpus Christi

Corpus Christi
the most controversial and talked about play of the 1998 theatrical season begins: "We are going to tell you an old and familiar story." But from that point on, nothing feels quite familiar again. What follows is a story that parallels the New Testament's, and its subject is nothing less than the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus. But McNally's Christ figure is a character named Joshua, a young man born and raised in Corpus Christi, Texas, in the early 1950s. Different from the other boys because he is homosexual, Joshua grows up in isolation and torment, an object of scorn. He flees Corpus Christi in search of a more accepting environment, gathering along the way a group of disciples who are bound to him by his message of love and tolerance. Joshua delivers his Sermon on the Mount, and officiates at a gay marriage ceremony, but, inevitably, his radical teachings (like Jesus') will not deliver him from his fate. Returning to Corpus Christi, he is betrayed by his lover, Judas, and crucified in front of the jeering throngs who hated him as a boy, and still do. His plea, that we look upon all souls as equal in the sight of God, falls unattended.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-     1998

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Avalon Travel Publishing 1999   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Gay, full length

Parts:
Male:  13            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Cuba Si!

Synopsis:
Armed woman guerrilla confronts diametrically opposed liberal reporter in New York's Central Park.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Provincetown, Massachusetts     1968

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Sweet Eros, Next, and Other Plays", Random House, New York, 1969   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dawn

Synopsis:
Quentin and his sister Veronica, together with his wife Pat, gather at the beach to scatter their mother's ashes. the act itself is a closure of sorts, but it stirs up conflicts between the three as marital wounds and sibling rivalries never dealt with are finally confronted

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dedication or the Stuff of Dreams

Synopsis:
In a small upstate New York town, Lou, a speech and Drama teacher, and Jessie, a dog groomer at the Dapper Dog, bring joy to their community through running an amateur theater company. they become obsessed with buying a derelict movie theater and turning it into Captain Lou and Miss Jessie's Magic theater for Children of All Ages. the only obstacle in reaching their dream is Annabelle Willard-a terminally ill and manipulative widow who owns half the town. Will these naive dreamers be able to grasp the brass ring, and at what cost?
nytheatre.com

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 2006   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Deuce

Synopsis:
Warmly funny and unexpectedly touching, DEUCE tells the story of retired tennis stars Leona Mullen and Midge Barker, who once made up a championship doubles team. When they meet again at the U.S. Open, the women-now at the end of their lives-find themselves trying to make sense of the professional partnership that brought them to the top of the sports world in their youth.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Music Box Theatre, NY, Usa     2007

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 2009   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Don't Fall For the Lights

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
in Urban Blight

1st Produced:
New York     1988

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
dialogue only

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dunelawn

Synopsis:
we are in an expensive retreat for the unhappily married where the saintly Dr. Toynbee injects his straight-jacketed charges with tranquilizing drugs to calm such urges-but the catalogue of aberrations revealed in his patients is subjected to close, and enormously funny, scrutiny.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy One Act

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Dusk

Synopsis:
focuses on Willy, a hunk at the beach, and the two women, Dana and Marsha, who would do anything to have him. We discover that all three suffer from their own personal prisons from which they need to escape, and luckily they seem to have found the right place and time to do so.

Notes:
part of By the Sea By the Sea By the Beautiful Sea, Three one-act plays by Joe Pintauro, Lanford Wilson And Terrence McNally

1st Produced:
Bay Street Theatre Of Sag Harbor    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in By the Sea By the Sea By the Beautiful Sea, Dramatist Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Faith, Hope And Charity

Synopsis:
In the first play, FAITH, by Israel Horovitz, a group of 1960s radical writers hold a reunion, twenty years later, in front of the statue of the Polish King Jagiello in New York's Central Park. Reared in an age of sex, booze, drugs and explicit language, the group finds that time, and the demands of making a living, have both drained their passions and left their dreams half-realized. But the daughter of one of them, speaking for her own generation, confronts them with the legacy of cynicism and hopelessness which they have passed on, whether or not they realize it. the second play, HOPE, by Terrence McNally, takes place in the same setting, but this time the central figures are a young brother and sister who have come to the park before dawn to honor the memory of a close friend who has committed suicide after becoming ill with AIDS. they meet a nun in civilian clothes (who is really not a nun at all, but who nevertheless admonishes the boy for his salty language); a man listening to Mahler on his headphones; and a chatty lady who has come to feed the pigeons. Although they meet by chance, and have little in common, somehow they manage to infuse each other with a sense of hope as the sun, at last, comes up over the quiet city. In the third play, CHARITY, by Leonard Melfi, the action again takes place at the same site in Central Park, but this time after nightfall. A woman swigs brandy and talks to the statue and then, suddenly, draws a gun and accosts another woman, an artist who has come to capture the statue on canvas. But the gun isn't loaded. In fact, as she demonstrates by persuading the artist to "hold up" another pair of evening strollers, the gun is really a way to spread love and good cheer-which, with infectious whimsy, the play most certainly does.

Notes:
Israel Horovitz, Terrence McNally And Leonard Melfi

1st Produced:
New York     1988

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1989   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Thrre Short Plays

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Frankie And Johnny In the Clair De Lune

Synopsis:
the setting is a walk-up apartment on Manhattan's West Side where, as the curtain rises, Frankie (a waitress) and Johnny (a short-order cook who works in the same restaurant) are discovered in bed. It is their first encounter, after having met several weeks ago on the job, and Frankie is hopeful that Johnny will now put on his clothes and depart, so she can return to her usual routine of watching TV and eating ice cream. But Johnny, a compulsive talker (and romantic), has other ideas. He is convinced that he loves Frankie, a notion that she, at first, considers to be ridiculous. She has had more disappointments than delights in life, and he is the veteran of one broken marriage already. And neither of them is in the bloom of youth. Yet out of their sometimes touching, sometimes hilarious interplay the promise of a relationship beyond a "one-night stand" does begin to emerge and, as the lights dim, the two are back in bed again, but this time side-by-side, holding hands before the glowing television screen.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Nick Hern Books, London, 1989   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Full Frontal Nudity

Synopsis:
explores the power of perfection when set against the reality of human loss and longing as three disparate American tourists in Florence are instructed by their guide to immerse themselves in the beauty of Michelangelo's David.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Drama One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Full Monty, The

Full Monty, The
Will they or won't they? Six steel workers strive for success doing 'the Full Monty.' Come and see if the cast in this new musical of the acclaimed film go all the way!

Notes:
Book by Terrence McNally, music And lyrics by David Yazbek

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Katie Adams/the Gallery Players

1st Published:
Applause Books, New York,    

Music:
Original Broadway cast: Bertelsman Music Group (09026-63739-2) 2000

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Film Adaptation Musical. - - Gay/Lesbian, musical

Parts:
Male:  11            Female:  8            Other:  extras

Further Reference:

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Golden Age

Synopsis:
It's opening night of Vincenzo Bellini's new opera I Puritani in Paris, and the Italian composer is determined to win the adulation of not only his audience, but his colleagues and rivals as well. When the curtain falls, will a thunderous ovation cement his prominence? Or has Bellini unwittingly composed his own swan song? Blending 21st-century language with the timeless beauty of 19th-century bel canto opera, GOLDEN AGE portrays the final act of an artist whose desire for greatness has eclipsed all else.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Philadelphia Theatre Company     2010

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 2014   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Here's Where I Belong

Here's Where I Belong
Setting: 1915-1917. Salinas, California

Notes:
Music by Robert Waldman; Lyrics by Alfred Uhry; Book by Alex Gordon; (Uncredited) book by Terrence McNally (McNally Asked that his name be removed from the credits of the show); Based on the novel "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck

1st Produced:
Billy Rose Theatre, New York     1968

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
Blue Pear 1968

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Genre:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Hidden Agendas

Synopsis:
satirical look at non-profit Arts institutions that depend on the various whims of their subscribers wishes, the beneficence of the National Endowment for the Arts, charitable patrons and the passing fashions of the times

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  13 men and women

Further Reference:
-

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Hope

Synopsis:
akes place in the same setting, but this time the central figures are a young brother and sister who have come to the park before dawn to honor the memory of a close friend who has committed suicide after becoming ill with AIDS. they meet a nun in civilian clothes (who is really not a nun at all, but who nevertheless admonishes the boy for his salty language); a man listening to Mahler on his headphones; and a chatty lady who has come to feed the pigeons. Although they meet by chance, and have little in common, somehow they manage to infuse each other with a sense of hope as the sun, at last, comes up over the quiet city

Notes:
part of Faith, Hope And Charity

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

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Genre:
One Act

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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In Your Arms

Synopsis:
A company that has amassed an astounding 18 Tony Awards, 4 Pulitzer Prizes, 6 Pulitzer finalist distinctions, 3 Emmys, and 2 Academy Awards joins forces at the Globe for an exuberant world premiere dance-theatre musical! Ten of America's best theatrical storytellers (the minds behind such hits as The Full Monty, Driving Miss Daisy, M. Butterfly, and Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike) join director-choreographer Christopher Gattelli (Newsies, The King and I) and composer Stephen Flaherty (Ragtime) to create a ravishing evening that glides, leaps, and twirls through the giddy extremes of romantic love. This unique event ranges across eras and cultures and tells its stories through the universal language of dance, from classical ballet to swing to tap to ballroom to jazz to flamenco and more. In Your Arms is as intoxicating as a sunset cocktail and as exhilarating as a first kiss.

Notes:
Music by Stephen Flaherty; Vignettes by Douglas Carter Beane, Nilo Cruz, Christopher Durang, Carrie Fisher, David Henry Hwang, Rajiv Joseph, Terrence McNally, Marsha Norman, Lynn Nottage, and Alfred UhryDirection and Choreography by Christopher Gattelli; Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens; Conceived by Christopher Gattelli and Jennifer Manocherian

1st Produced:
Old Globe Theatre, CA, USA >>>     24 Sep 2015

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
dance theatre

Parts:
Male:  11            Female:  12            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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It's Only A Play

It's Only A Play
It's the opening night of the Golden Egg on Broadway, and the wealthy producer (Julia Budder) is throwing a lavish party in her lavish Manhattan townhouse. Downstairs the celebrities are pouring in, but the real action is upstairs where a group of insiders have staked themselves out in the producer's bedroom, waiting for the reviews to come in. Included are the excitable young author; the brilliant but unstable director (who courts failure and is devastated when his work is well received); the pill-popping leading lady (who is hoping to revive her career after a series of flop movies); and the playwright's best friend, an egotistical but insecure comic actor who passed up a chance to star in the play for a television series-which has since been cancelled. Also present are a fawning, hypocritical Drama critic (who is a closet playwright); a would-be singer working as a part-time servant; and a hard-boiled lady taxi driver who has seen it all, many times over. the good natured bonhommie with which the evening begins grows steadily bitchier-and funnier-as the reviews (all bad) come in, and those assembled seek desperately to pin the blame on each other. But, as euphoria slides into despair, the narcissism, ambition, childishness and just plain irrationality that infuse the theatre and its denizens take over, and as the curtain falls plans are eagerly afoot for their next venture-this one sure to be the hit they have all been hoping for.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Center Stage 1, New York     12 Jan 1986

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Nelson Doubleday, New York, 1986   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  5            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Kiss Of the Spider Woman

Synopsis:
In a South American prison two men share a cell. Valentin a revolutionary and Molina accused of corrupting a minor. To while away the time Molina tells stories of B-films he has seen

Notes:
Book by Terrence McNally; Music by John Kander; Lyrics by Fred Ebb; Based on the novel by Manuel Puig

1st Produced:
Purchase, New York     1990

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French Inc, New York, 1993   

Music:
Revival cast recording: Mercury (526526) 1994

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Genre:
Adaptation. - - Gay, theme/character full length

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

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Lady Of the Camellias, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
Original Playwright - Alexandre Dumas fils

1st Produced:
Winter Garden, NYC     1963

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Adaptation

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Last Gasps

Synopsis:
First presented on New York's channel 13 (Educational Television) as part of FOUL!, a special program on pollution and conservation, this imaginative short play offers an affecting, but also chilling, observation on the awful fate which mankind will face unless he curbs the misuse of his environment. Moving quickly from one vignette to another, the play presents a cross section of individuals, all quite different and yet all facing the same inexorable horror-that terrible moment when breathable air is exhausted and human life no longer possible.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

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Genre:
Drama One Act

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  6            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Let It Bleed

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
in City Stops

1st Produced:
New York     1972

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Lips Together, Teeth Apart

Synopsis:
A gay community in Fire Island provides an unlikely setting for two straight couples who are discovered lounging poolside, staring out to sea. Sally, married to Sam, a New Jersey contractor, has inherited the house from her brother who died of AIDS. Sam's hyperkinetic sister, Chloe, and her smug, aristocratic husband, John, have come out for the Fourth of July weekend. Amidst the seemingly mundane activities, it becomes apparent that the two men despise each other because John has had an affair with Sally; Sally is panicked and melancholy because she is pregnant and fears miscarriage; and Chloe seems determined to drive them all mad with her incessant babble and enthusiasm for musical comedies. Through monologues unheard by the others, the characters reveal a desperate sense of individual isolation. the only people these four characters find more alien are the gay men partying in the houses on either side of them. As they divert themselves from their own mortality with food, cocktails, the New York Times crossword puzzle, fireworks, charades, and biting jabs at each other and the boys next door, Sally and Sam and John and Chloe find little to celebrate about themselves or their country on its birthday.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York     1991

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1992   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

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Lisbon Traviata, The

Synopsis:
the first act is set in the fussily ornate apartment of Mendy, a ferociously dedicated opera buff who begs and cajoles his friend Stephen to let him borrow his copy of the pirated Maria Callas recording of La Traviata made during a performance in Lisbon, Portugal. Stephen, a blocked playwright whose detailed knowledge of opera exceeds even Mendy's, delights in showing off his expertise while dodging his friend's entreaties, but beneath their often hilarious banter it is evident that both men are deeply unhappy-Mendy because of his loneliness, and Stephen because he is aware that his longtime roommate (whom he loves deeply) is having an affair with someone else. Both it seems, are trapped within opera, with its grand but contrived passions becoming a neurotic substitute for real life. But in the second act, which takes place in Stephen's starkly modern apartment, reality arrives with stunning force as Stephen confronts his roommate, Mike, and tries to salvage their relationship. Sensing his failure, Stephen turns on Mike and his new lover, Paul, driving the latter away and taunting Mike so venomously that all hope of a reconciliation is soon shattered. And, in the end, it is the operatic, the grandly tragic, which assumes control again as Stephen, unable to accept life and reality on their own terms, stabs his errant lover-tortured by his continuing lack of creative fulfillment and by the compelling need to preserve the illusion of love and fidelity to which he has clung so desperately.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York     1985

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Three Plays", Dramatists Play Service, New York, 1990   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy Drama Comedy. - - Gay, full length

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Love! Valour! Compassion!

Synopsis:
At a beautiful Dutchess County farmhouse, eight men hash out their passions, resentments and fears over the course of three summer weekends. there's Perry and Arthur, a professional couple of long standing, whose relationship, while strained, always manages to settle into the loving routine of a couple grown too familiar with one another, but happily so. the owner of the summer house, Gregory, is an aging choreographer who dotes on his younger lover, Bobby, who is blind. their relationship seems solid, until an irresistible dancer, Ramon, callously flaunts his sex appeal and manages to seduce Bobby on the first night in the house. Trying to keep Ramon to himself is John Jeckyll, a soured ex-patriot Brit with a taste for meloDrama-and cruelty. John rankles everyone around him, speaking the unspeakable in haughty nonchalance while probing the weaknesses of the others. the painful truth about his ire eventually becomes clear when he has to take care of his terminally ill twin brother, James. Unlike John, James inspires nothing but affection in those around him, and here lies both the crux of John's complaint and the source of one of the play's most blistering and revealing of monologues about the related questions of gay identity and self-esteem. Finally, there is Buzz, a maniacal lover of the musical theater. Like James, Buzz suffers from AIDS, and he has resigned himself to a life of humorous anecdotes and comforting trivia. Strange things can happen, though, and against all odds, Buzz finds himself falling in love for what may be one last summer.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Gloria Maddox Theatre (T. Schreiber Studio), NY     2005

Organisations:
T. Schrieiber Studio

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy Drama Comedy. - - Gay, full length

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Man Of No Importance, A

Man Of No Importance, A
Alfie is a bus conductor who idolises Oscar Wilde. He reads Wilde's works to his passengers. When he finally drums up courage to look for love he dresses up as Oscar - hair parted in the middle, green carnation and so on.

Notes:
Book by Terrence McNally; Music by Stephen Flaherty; Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens

1st Produced:
-     2002

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
Original cast recording: Jay (CDJay 1369) 2002 2002

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Genre:
Gay/Lesbian, musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  large cast

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Master Class

Synopsis:
Maria Callas is teaching a master class in front of an audience (us). She's glamorous, commanding, larger than life-and drop-dead funny. An accompanist sits at the piano. Callas' first "victim" is Sophie, a ridiculous, overly-perky soprano, dressed all in pink. Sophie chooses to sing one of the most difficult arias, the sleepwalking scene from La Sonnambula-an aria that Callas made famous. Before the girl sings a note, Callas stops her-she clearly can't stand hearing music massacred. And now what has started out as a class has become a platform for Callas. She glories in her own career, dabbles in opera dish and flat-out seduces the audience. Callas gets on her knees and acts the entire aria in dumb show, eventually reducing the poor singer to tears. But with that there are plenty of laughs going on, especially between Callas and the audience. Callas pulls back and gives Sophie a chance to use what she's learned. As soon as Sophie starts singing, though, Callas mentally leaves the room and goes into a sprawling interior monologue about her own performance of that aria and the thunderous applause she received at La Scala. Callas wakes up and sends Sophie off with a pat. the next two sessions repeat the same dynamic, only the middle session is with a tenor who moves Callas to tears. She again enters her memories, and we learn about Callas' affair with Aristotle Onassis; an abortion she was forced to have; her first elderly husband whom she left; her early days as an ugly duckling; the fierce hatred of her rivals; and the unforgiving press that savaged her at first. Finally, we meet Sharon, another soprano, who arrives in a full ball gown. With Sharon singing, Callas is genuinely moved, for the young singer has talent, but Callas tells her to stick to flimsy roles. Sharon is devastated and spits back every nasty thing you've ever heard about Callas: She's old, washed up; she ruined her voice too early in her career; she only wants people to worship her, etc. Sharon rushes out of the hall, and Callas brings the class to a close with a beautiful speech about the sacrifices we must make in the name of art.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Center Stage Community Playhouse, NY     2005

Organisations:
Center Stage Community Playhouse

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Mothers and Sons

Synopsis:
At turns funny and powerful, MOTHERS AND SONS portrays a woman who pays an unexpected visit to the New York apartment of her late son's partner, who is now married to another man and has a young son. Challenged to face how society has changed around her, generations collide as she revisits the past and begins to see the life her son might have led.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Bucks County Playhouse (Pennsylvania)     13 Jun 2013

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, Inc.   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  1 child

Further Reference:
-

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Next

Synopsis:
set in an Army Induction Center, where an overweight, over-age, and overwrought draftee has reluctantly reported for his physical. Confronted by an Amazon-like female sergeant, he tries every evasion he can think of to disqualify himself, but is ultimately shattered by the realization that nothing will stave off the inevitable. His final monologue, a harrowing exposure of bitterness and confusion, reveals the dilEmma of a man to whom the meaning and purpose of his country have become unclear.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Westport, Connecticut     1967

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Sweet Eros, Next and Other Plays", Random House, New York, 1969   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  3 bits

Further Reference:
-

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Noon

Synopsis:
brings together two men of different sexual constitutions, a house wife stripper and a couple of sadists with whips and chains

Notes:
in Chiaroscuro And in Morning Noon And Night (New York, 1968)

1st Produced:
Spoleto, Italy     1968

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Morning, Noon and Night", Random House, New York, 1969   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Satire One Act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Perfect Ganesh, A

Synopsis:
the pilgrimage tradition is turned on its head when two outwardly unremarkable, middle-aged lady friends throw themselves into a rousing tour of India, each one having her own secret dreams of what the fabled land of intoxicating opposites will do for the suffering she hides within. Margaret Civil, an uptight example of WASP prerogative, has just discovered a lump in her breast but hasn't told her friend. the more theatrical and adventurous Katharine seeks a respite from the haunting of her son, Walter, and even thinks of kissing the leprous hordes of Bombay to atone for the way she rejected him and maybe, she thinks, contributed to the gay-bashing in which he died. Faced with the women's despair, who but the golden elephant god could intervene? Fluid in his power to assume any guise, at peace with all things, Ganesha is the spiritual center around which the play spins itself, drawing upon the tragic and the comic, the beautiful and the deplorable, until a breathtaking release arrives for both women at his hands.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Gay, theme/character full length

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  2            Other:  -

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Plaisir D'Amour

Synopsis:
Ruth and Sam meet thirty years ago at a Carnegie Hall lieder recital and begin an ever accelerating ride through love, joy, pain and eventual compromise.
- nytheatre.com

Notes:
Plaisir D'Amour, book by Terrence McNally, music And lyrics by Skip Kennon. part of Summer Shorts 2

1st Produced:

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

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Genre:
short musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Prelude And Liebstod

Synopsis:
PRELUDE & LIEBESTOD listens to the head of a major symphony orchestra while he conducts the Prelude and Liebestod of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde and rhapsodizes about his closeted homosexual existence. Attending the concert is his well-to-do-society wife and her counterpoint, a lusty male groupie who idolizes the conductor. As the music mounts in excitement, the conductor gives way to a super-charged erotic memory of his first great sexual encounter, climaxing, as though to the music, in a gruesome, self-inflicted death.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York     1989

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

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Genre:
Play One Act. - - Gay, theme/character one act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Ragtime

Synopsis:
the musical is based on E.L. Doctorow's novel about life in America in the early 20th century, and features colorful characters such as Houdini, Emma Goldman, and Henry Ford, along with three archetypal (fictional) families whose destinies intertwine in unexpected ways.

Notes:
Book by Terrence McNally, Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, music by Stephen Flaherty. From e L Doctorow Novel

1st Produced:
Ford Center For The Performing Arts, New York     18 Jan 1998

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
Original cast recording: RCA Victor (09026631672)

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Genre:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  Large Cast

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Ravenswood

Synopsis:
In RAVENSWOOD, we are in an expensive retreat for the unhappily married, where the wheel-chaired director, Dr. Pepper, dispenses a definitely unique sort of marital guidance. His theory includes complete indulgence of such "bad habits" as smoking, drinking and sexual promiscuity-which seems to work wonders for his patients, whose wacky case histories are each examined in hilarious detail.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy One Act

Parts:
Male:  6            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Rink, The

Synopsis:
Setting: A roller rink somewhere on the Eastern seaboard. the 1970s

Notes:
Book by Terrence McNally; Music by John Kander; Lyrics by Fred Ebb

1st Produced:
Martin Beck Theatre, NY     1984

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Samuel French, NY, 1985   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:

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Ritz, The

Synopsis:
Orgies at the bathhouse, homosexual brothel, as role playing and caricature prevail.

Notes:
aka the Tubs

1st Produced:
New Haven, Connecticut     1975

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "the Ritz and Other Plays", Dodd Mead, New York, 1976   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Comedy. - - Gay, theme/character full length

Parts:
Male:  14            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Roller Coaster, The

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Columbia Review", New York, Spring, 1960   

Music:
-

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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Some Men

Synopsis:
While two men exchange wedding vows, guests at the ceremony chart their own loves, lives, and the degrees of liberation they've achieved-or not-over the years. At once a collage and a celebration, with equal parts wit and heart, Some Men is set against the events that shaped the past century.
Press Release

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
Second Stage Theatre

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 2008   

Music:
-

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Genre:
Gay, full length

Parts:
Male:  7            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Stendhal Syndrome, The

Synopsis:
Terrence McNally (Tony Award-winner for Master Class and Love! Valour! Compassion!) has crafted two beautiful and funny plays about art and humankind: FULL FRONTAL NUDITY explores the power of perfection when set against the reality of human loss and longing as three disparate American tourists in Florence are instructed by their guide to immerse themselves in the beauty of Michelangelo's David. (3 men, 2 women.) In PRELUDE & LIEBESTOD, a renowned conductor watches his life unravel while conducting Wagner's musical masterpiece. (3 men, 2 women.)

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Primary Stages New York     2004

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

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Genre:
Two Short Plays One Act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Street Talk

Synopsis:
a confrontational monologue pondering the changes in the American theatre from the sixties-when theatre itself sought to confront, challenge and educate-to today's theatre which seems only to give a bigger bang for the buck.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Sunday Times, The

Sunday Times, The
he Sunday New York Times always upsets Susan. Maybe it's because there are no same sex or interracial couples in the Wedding Section. Or because the news reminds her that nothing ever changes, no matter what Administration the country is under. Or because no one else, including her friends, seems to notice how bad things have become. A play about the suffocating, sometimes surprising state of the modern world.

Notes:
In 1995, A group of writers, directors And Actors gathered on Manhattan's Lower East Side for what was supposed to be A one-time-only event: write, direct, produce And perform new plays with the span of 24 hours. More than A decade And just over 300 plays later, the 24 Hour Plays have been produced on Broadway, in London, Los Angeles, Chicago And Across the globe.

1st Produced:
The 24 Hour Plays On Broadway (New York, NY, United States)     2006

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in 24 by 24: the 24 Hour Plays Anthology, Playscripts Inc   

Music:
-

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If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
10 min Comedy/Drama

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  3 males, 1 female

Further Reference:
-

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Sweet Eros

Synopsis:
a monologue delivered by a poet, with interruptions, in the form of sobs (at first), muffled protests (at first), and the croaking of a song, 'Plaisir D'Amour' (at the end). the poet, formerly a math teacher, has kidnapped a young woman and driven her to a remote house in the country. When we first see her, she is gagged and bound to a chair, and in the course of the action she is on the receiving end of a nonstop spate of reminiscence, personal philosophy, sharp instruction, and true confessions and observations, many of them repulsive. Nothing her captor does stems the tide of his own conversation. He strips her bare then goes over her face with a magnifying glass. Eventually he frees her of gag and bindings, and takes her to bed, and as time progresses she minds less and less.

Patricia McKnight adds that 1) the antagonist, the man who has kidnapped this young woman, rapes her repeatedly -- and this is portrayed on state. 2) at the final blackout the antagonist announces that HE believes the female protagonist may no longer mind their life and 3) he has (apparently) dosed off and she is reaching for a knife which the playwright has been at some pains to establish is kept in a bedside drawer, obviously it is her intent to kill her tormentor and to then escape. This hardly constitutes "minding it (her captivity) less and less." We do not know if she succeeds in her bid for freedom. the play is a chilling depiction of the mind of a psychotic, narcissistic, torturer and killer, of whom there are too many. It does not tell us how he got that way.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Stockbridge, Massachusetts     1968

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Sweet Eros, Next, and Other Plays", Random House, New York, 1969   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Comedy Drama One Act

Parts:
Male:  1            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Sweet Talk

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
in Urban Revue

1st Produced:
New York     1988

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in Andre's Mother and Other Short Plays, Dramatist Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Things That Go Bump In the Night

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:

Organisations:
LaMama Cambridge

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Tour

Synopsis:
we encounter an American couple being chauffeured through Italy, imagining themselves to be ambassadors of good will despite their fatuous, patronizing chatter. Mixed in with their inane comments, to their driver and others, are references to their son in Vietnam and to the carnage there; but somehow they remain unable to comprehend the reality of the world they live in-and to be comfortable with the sense of privilege their money and freedom provide

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Los Angeles     1967

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Apple Pie", Dramatists Play service, New York, 1969   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play One Act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  1            Other:  2 bits

Further Reference:
-

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Unusual Acts of Devotion

Synopsis:
On a summer evening, residents of a Greenwich Village walk-up gather on the roof to celebrate a wedding anniversary, only to confront some of the uncomfortable truths that inform their lives and relationships. Unusual Acts of Devotion looks at things done - and not done - all in the name of love.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
Philadelphia Theatre Company     2008

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  4            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Up In Saratoga

Synopsis:
-

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
San Diego     1989

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
-

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Visit, The

Synopsis:
Though written in 1956, Durrenmatt's the Visit, heralded as a masterpiece of 20th century German-language literature, seems a cross between a 19th Century meloDrama and a contemporary satire. Claire Zachanassian fled a mythical central-European town (in the original play, the town name translates as Manure). As a pregnant teen not only rejected by her lover but betrayed by the legal system from which she sought redress, Claire survived in spades, careening from prostitution through a succession of wealthy husbands to become the richest widow in the world. Her ex-lover/nemesis, Anton, abandoned her to marry the town shopkeeper's daughter and thereby secure his fortune. Flash forward roughly 40 years and Claire's agents have purchased virtually all property and economic enterprise in and surrounding her hometown. Claire secretly has pulled the financial carpet out from under such that all of her former townsfolk are now impoverished, and despondently so. Thus Claire's devil's bargain: kill Anton and she will endow the town collectively as well as each resident individually with wealth beyond their wildest dreams. Playwright Durrenmatt was known to represent the play as a comedy. Well, in a culture which invented the word 'schadenfreude,' this story is no doubt a barrel of laughs. Terrence McNally's adaptation is very faithful to the original, deliciously spiced with some delightful Bette Davis-like barbs for Claire to toss off.
Gary McMillan, DC theatre Scene

Notes:
Book by Terrence McNally, based on the play by Friedrich Durrenmatt (adapted by Maurice Valency); Music by John Kander; lyrics by Fred Ebb

1st Produced:
-     2001

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
-   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

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Genre:
Musical

Parts:
Male:  -            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?

Synopsis:
Constructed as a series of vignettes, skits and brief incidents, the play portrays the life and attitude of one Tommy Flowers-irrepressible cut-up, determined freeloader and disenchanted rebel against society. In the course of his adventures he befriends a destitute old actor, acquires an over-sized sheep dog (his best friend) and finds love with a beautiful music student (whom he meets in the ladies' room at Bloomingdale's). But as Tommy moves from scene to scene, his bright red shopping bag at the ready for pilfering and his agile wit poised to hoodwink everyone in sight, we also glimpse the root causes of his alienation-his ailing, complaining mother back home; an unhappily married brother; a former girlfriend who has settled for a suffocating domesticity; and a venturing forth which has brought more rejection than acceptance. In the end, betrayed yet again, but still buoyantly defiant, Tommy devises his final rip-off-a bomb to blow him, and at least some small portion of a world he cannot accept, into oblivion.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New Haven, Connecticut     1971

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1972   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Comedy

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  3            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Whiskey

Synopsis:
the title character (who remains unseen) is the equine star of television's longest-running and most popular show, in which he is partnered with "the Lush Thrushes," a cowboy troupe whose members bear the names of the various brands of booze they guzzle so copiously. the group makes a rare live appearance at the Houston Astrodome, only to flop disastrously, and then retreats to their hotel where each member then reveals his (or her) innermost thoughts in hilarious detail. When the hotel catches fire they are too far gone to notice, and the epilogue finds them all in heaven-dressed in white western finery, and lamenting the fact that "Whiskey," who miraculously survived the inferno, is about to become the star of a new series.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York     1973

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY, 1973   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Comedy One Act. - - Gay, theme/character one act

Parts:
Male:  4            Female:  2            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Wibbly, Wobbly Wiggly Dance That Cleopatterer Did, The

Synopsis:
follows a lonely young man and a male hustler during their one night stand. their meeting leads to a discussion, in detail, about the pros and cons of being with a man or a woman. Only one of them has any leanings towards true intimacy. Unfortunately, he isn't the one who is being paid, and after his rented partner leaves, he is left to mull over his bitterest feelings.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
-    

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, NY,    

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
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Genre:
Play One Act. - - Gay, one act

Parts:
Male:  2            Female:  -            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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Witness

Synopsis:
a gagged victim is trussed up in a chair, this time a man. His captor hopes to assassinate the President of the U.S. during a motorcade, and he wants a witness to his own sanity in committing the act. the stuff of madness has been crammed into this young would-be assassin's head, principally by newspaper reading and television viewing. He knows all about the cabinet crises in Lebanon, but he doesn't know right from wrong. He hopes to resolve his baffled impotence with a high-powered rifle shot. Another potential witness shows up on the scene, a hilariously surly window washer, a sharply drawn caricature of the New York City 'prole' ('I may be 40 stories up but I'm the man in the street'), who coolly surveys the tied-up man straining to free his bonds and ignores his gagged pleas and his plight with magnificent aplomb. An atmosphere of hystErical malediction gradually infests the room, until, at the crucial moment, the young man loses his chance for infamous glory as a hundred assassins gun down the President in a communal murder. Despite its grisly theme, the play is acridly funny in its satire of a society that, in the playwright's view, is teetering toward terror, anarchy and nihilism.

Notes:
-

1st Produced:
New York     1968

Organisations:
-

1st Published:
in "Sweet Eros, Next, and Other Plays", Random House, New York, 1969   

Music:
-

To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies

Booksellers:

Genre:
Comedy One Act

Parts:
Male:  3            Female:  1            Other:  -

Further Reference:
-

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