GREAT PERFORMANCES mourns the passing of five-time Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally, whose work was first featured on the series in 1979 with his screenplay adaptation of the John Cheever short story “The Five Forty-Eight” starring Laurence Luckinbill and Mary Beth Hurt. In 1992, McNally wrote the screenplay for “The Last Mile,” a short film included in “GREAT PERFORMANCES’ 20th Anniversary Special” starring Bernadette Peters, Nathan Lane, Paul Sorvino and Tony Goldwyn. In 1998, “Creating Ragtime” offered a behind the scenes look at the Broadway musical adaptation of E.L. Doctorow’s novel featuring a book by McNally with music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. In 2000, McNally was one of the librettists joining forces for “Central Park,” a trio one-act operas. And in 2015, McNally was among the interviews featured in “Chita Rivera: A lot of Livin’ to Do.”
In a 2014 interview with Paula Zahn on NYC-ARTS, McNally talked about some of the milestone moments of his extraordinary life in the theater.