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As a young man, struggling to become a successful playwright, Terrence McNally set up Sardi's as a reward.
"I told myself I couldn't go there until I had a play on Broadway," he said. He didn't have to wait long. Things That Go Bump in the Night opened at the Royale Theatre on April 26, 1965. The opening night party was, yes, at Sardi's. The Theatre District eatery was still the center of theatrical dining culture back then, and the first choice for premiere soirees. McNally walked in to an ovation. He thought it was for his 26-year-old self. Then he noticed Eileen Heckart, the star of his play, standing right behind him. "The applause was for her," he recalled, smiling at the memory.
Though it has been nearly a half-century since that party, Sardi's still holds a special place in McNally's heart. He rented out the entire restaurant for his 70th birthday celebration in 2009. He was trying to think of a setting that would top other landmark birthday parties he'd been to. "I thought, nobody's done that," he said. He and 200 of his closest friends had a swell night. "I remember Barbara Cook, Zoe Caldwell and Doris Roberts and me closing the place," he said. "I've know Doris probably longer than anyone else in New York. She was in Bad Habits." That play, one of McNally's early critical successes, opened Off-Broadway in 1974.
photo by Joan Marcus |
The new Master Class stars Tyne Daly as opera diva Maria Callas. The production previously ran at the Kennedy Center in spring 2010 as part of a festival celebrating McNally's work. Casting her was the playwright's idea. "I thought, Who's a stage actress from the boards up? And that's Tyne. She didn't want to do it. She thought she was too down to Earth, but I convinced her." He contacted the actress himself. "I like to do that," he said. "It doesn't make my agent happy. They want things to go through them. And certainly Hollywood agents don't want their clients to take stage work, because there's not enough money for them in the deal."
photo by Joan Marcus |
McNally has seen Master Class, one of his most-produced plays, many times. He's seen it in French. He's seen it in Greek. "I don't always know where we are in the script," he admitted of those productions. Are the laughs always in the same places? "No. But the laughs aren't always in the same places for this production, from night to night."
photo by Peter James Zielinski |
A new play in the works means no curling up with a good book for McNally. "When I'm writing, I don't read fiction," he said. "Maybe a biography, but no fiction." When he's not bent over a hot computer, however, he likes fiction fine. And certain books he more than likes. "I read 'The Great Gatsby' once a year. And John O'Hara's first book, 'Appointment in Samarra.' I was asked once to turn 'The Great Gatsby' into a musical. But how do you do that? The magic of that book is mysterious. I saw the opera. It didn't work. The films haven't been good."
Following the opening of Master Class, he planned to travel to Ireland with his longtime partner (and spouse, as of spring 2010) Tom Kirdahy. They will stay at the home of actress Angela Lansbury, which is perched on a cliff over the sea. "I've been to Dublin several times, but never anywhere else in Ireland." Really? Never? I mean, his name is McNally. "My parents weren't interested in that sort of thing," he replied. "I don't know my genealogy. I don't know where I'm from." View highlights from Master Class: