Impact Finding in McMillan’s novels a genuine un-
derstanding of their lives, African American women
flocked to bookstores to buy her books. McMillan is
credited with creating a new reading audience.
Moreover, her success stimulated other African
American women to produce similar realistic fic-
tion. Thus, it has been said that she established a new
genre. Her emergence in the 1990’s as the voice of
upwardly mobile African American women made
her one of the most important writers of the decade.
Further Reading
Nunez, Elizabeth, and Brenda M. Greene, eds.De-
fining Ourselves: Black Writers in the 90s.New York:
Peter Lang, 1999.
Patrick, Diane.Terr y McMillan: The Unauthorized Bi-
ography. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999.
Richards, Paulette.Terr y McMillan: A Critical Com-
panion. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1999.
Rosemar y M. Canfield Reisman
See also African Americans; Chick lit; Literature
in the United States; Marriage and divorce; Race re-
lations; Women’s rights.
McNally, Terrence
Identification American playwright
Born November 3, 1939; St. Petersburg, Florida
McNally achieved huge success in the 1990’s with his books
for musicals and his plays grappling with gay issues.
American playwright Terrence McNally is one of the
most respected and prolific playwrights since Ten-
nessee Williams. His straight plays often contain gay
characters and themes, while his writing for musicals
leans heavily toward work that embraces dreamers
trying to forge a better life.
McNally’s work does not shy away from gay themes.
In 1990, he won an Emmy Award for the televised
broadcast ofAndre’s Mother, a play that deals with a
woman trying to cope with her son’s death from
AIDS. The following year, he wroteLips Together, Teeth
Apart, which also deals with the disease, although this
time from the perspective of two heterosexual cou-
ples vacationing on Fire Island and afraid to go in a
pool owned by a man who died of AIDS.
McNally wrote the book for the 1992 musicalKiss
of the Spider Woman, for which he won the Tony Award
for Best Book of a Musical. The following year, his In-
dia-themedA Perfect Ganeshopened to moderate re-
views. The year 1994 brought critical acclaim in the
form ofLove! Valour! Compassion!—a look at the rela-
tionships of eight gay men during summer week-
ends at a Dutchess County getaway. In 1995, it won
the Tony Award for Best Play and the Drama Desk
Award for Outstanding Play, as well as the New York
Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best American Play.
It was adapted to film in 1997.
In 1995, McNally’s look at famed opera diva
Maria Callas in his playMaster Classopened on
Broadway and won the Tony Award for Best Play. In
1996, his collaboration with Lynn Ahrens and Ste-
phen Flaherty producedRagtime, which won him his
fourth Tony Award of the decade. This victory en-
sured his position as America’s foremost playwright
during the 1990’s.
McNally’s most controversial play,Corpus Christi,
opened in October, 1998. The story of a gay Jesus
Christ and Apostles living in modern-day Texas, its
allusions to Judas betraying Jesus out of sexual jeal-
ousy proved too much for many theatergoers.
Fearing public safety concerns, the Manhattan
Theatre Club, producer of the work, canceled the
opening. A nationwide censorship debate followed,
and the production was rescheduled. The new open-
ing followed the death of gay Wyoming student Mat-
thew Shepard and continued the dialogue of reli-
gion, art, and gay politics.Impact By the end of the decade, McNally was
hailed as one of America’s most prominent and im-
portant American playwrights.Further Reading
Drukman, Steven. “Terrence McNally.” InSpeaking
on Stage: Interviews with Contemporar y American
Playwrights, edited by Philip C. Kolin and Colby H.
Kullman. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama
Press, 1996.
Frontain, Raymond-Jean. “’All Men Are Divine’: Re-
ligious Mystery and Homosexual Identity in
Terrence McNally’sCorpus Christi.” InReclaiming
the Sacred: The Bible in Gay and Lesbian Culture.2d
ed. New York: Haworth Press, 2003.
Zinman, Toby Silverman, ed.Terrence McNally: A
Casebook. New York: Garland, 1997.
Tom SmithThe Nineties in America McNally, Terrence 541