Broadway.com, with producers Eric Kuhn and Justin Mikita, will present a live reading of Terrence McNally’s Lips Together, Teeth Apart tonight at 8 p.m. EDT.
Benefiting the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’ COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund, the livestream will be dedicated to McNally, who passed away on March 24, due to coronavirus complications. Viewers can watch on Broadway.com and its Facebook and YouTube channels.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JUNE 09: Terrence McNally and Tom Kirdahy attend the 73rd Annual Tony Awards at ... [+]
Lips Together, Teeth Apart will star Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Sam Truman, Celia Keenan-Bolger as Sally Truman, Zachary Quinto as John Haddock, and Ari Graynor as Chloe Haddock. It will be directed by Trip Cullman. The play — which The New York Times called one of “Mr. McNally’s finest” — chronicles two straight couples visiting the Fire Island home of a relative who recently died of AIDS during the height of the pandemic.
“Terrence used his work to make seemingly insurmountable societal issues seem surmountable through his belief in our unwavering human spirit,” said Tom Kirdahy, the husband of the late McNally and a member of the Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS Board of Trustees. “Seeing Terrence’s rage, humor, love, and empathy in the face of a virus feels right during this time.”
In addition to the livestream performance tonight of McNally’s play, fans of the playwright can watch an 80th birthday celebration for him held at 92Y in New York in October 2018. This features performances by Christine Baranski, Nathan Lane, Michael Urie, Michael Benjamin Washington and Christy Altomare; a screening of Every Act of Life, a film about McNally; and a conversation with him, Chita Rivera and other guests.
Said Kuhn and Mikita, “Theater has always been about bringing people together. For our first livestream play reading, we couldn't think of a playwright that represented that more than Terrence. In these uncertain times we are thrilled to partner with Broadway Cares and provide audiences some moments of relief."
McNally had a remarkably far-ranging career, including a new work on Broadway in each of the last six decades. In 2018 he was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was a 2019 recipient of a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement. He also received the Dramatists Guild Lifetime Achievement Award and the Lucille Lortel Lifetime Achievement Award. He won four Tony Awards, for his plays Love! Valour! Compassion! and Master Class and for his musical books for Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ragtime. He wrote a number of TV scripts, including “Andre’s Mother,” for which he won an Emmy Award.
In addition, he wrote the libretto for the operas Great Scott and Dead Man Walking, both with music by Jake Heggie. Other plays include Mothers and Sons; Lips Together, Teeth Apart; The Lisbon Traviata; Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune; A Perfect Ganesh; The Visit; The Full Monty; Corpus Christi; Bad Habits; Next; The Ritz; Anastasia; It’s Only a Play; Where Has Tommy Flowers Gone?; and The Stendhal Syndrome.
The Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS’ COVID-19 Emergency Assistance Fund is helping those onstage, backstage and behind the scenes impacted by the coronavirus pandemic and work shutdown. With every passing day that theatres remain dark, entertainment professionals face unprecedented health and financial challenges requiring immediate attention and resources. More than 20 Broadway producers are now offering a $1 million challenge match to double the impact of new donations..
Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is one of the nation’s leading industry-based, nonprofit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organizations. By drawing upon the talents, resources, and generosity of the American theater community, since 1988 Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS has raised more than $300 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses across the United States.
