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The Terrence Trifecta
Masterful acting keeps three plays by Terrence McNally from becoming cliché. But not even a porn star can save The Ritz.
From The Advocate  November 20, 2007
The Terrence Trifecta

You would think that an elder statesman of the theater like Terrence McNally would be resting on his laurels and collecting his royalties from Majorca or Maui. But unlike his ex-lover Edward Albee or his contemporary Sam Shepard, who eke out something new every five years or so, the 68-year-old McNally churns out plays like a caffeinated hotshot fresh out of Yale. The current revival of The Ritz at Studio 54 is his third show on or near Broadway this year alone.

First up was Some Men at the Second Stage, an ensemble piece in the tradition of Love! Valour! Compassion! and Corpus Christi. Spanning eight decades, it investigated the ways gay men have evolved (or not) in their habits of partnering (or not). All the scenes you expect from a gay social history are there. Same-sex wedding? Check. Scene at the baths? Check. AIDS ward? Check. Gay therapy group? Check. Internet chat room, gay daddies, elders being interviewed by earnest/ignorant young students, gay bar the night of the Stonewall rebellion—they’re all predictably there. The play might have felt like a string of clichés if it weren’t so well staged by Trip Cullman and fantastically acted. In particular, the ever-great David Greenspan wrung tears and laughter from some of the most overexposed gay stereotypes, p

including a drag queen in a Greenwich Village sweater bar who sings “Over the Rainbow” in a weak but endearing voice with a thick Long Island accent. Besides being haunted by actor Romain Frugé’s astonishingly beautiful bare butt, I came away with respect for McNally’s stamina for chronicling gay life. Even if it’s old news to us, mainstream straight audiences eat it up. And who knows, a play like Some Men may turn out decades from now to be the definitive document of the way we live now.

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Photography by Joan Marcus

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