“Go out and tell our story.” Friday morning, East 9th Street between University Place and Broadway was co-named in honor of Terrence McNally: renowned playwright, Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement winner, LGBTQ+ trailblazer, and longtime resident of the block. 

McNally’s many friends, family, neighbors, and collaborators gathered on the corner of 9th Street and University to celebrate the late playwright’s legacy with moving speeches, monologues from his work, and a performance from the upcoming Lincoln Center revival of Ragtime, for which McNally wrote the book.

As a writer, McNally chronicled the AIDS epidemic and its impacts on the LGBTQ+ community, love, compassion, and art itself. He won four Tony Awards — two for his plays, and two for books of musicals.    

“At a time when the arts are under attack in this country, books are being banned and LGBTQ+ rights are being eroded, honoring a fearless queer artist feels particularly meaningful,” Tom Kirdahy, McNally’s husband, said in his speech.

Before the unveiling of the Terrence McNally Way sign, Jonathan Groff, Francis Jue, and Donna Murphy performed monologues from three of his plays. The many attendees — including Lin-Manuel Miranda, Stephen Flaherty, Lynn Ahrens, and those who knew McNally well — were moved by hearing McNally’s words performed. Passersby stopped on the corner more than once, taking videos of the performers — and even shedding a tear.  

“Today, his works will be performed in theaters and opera houses, and tomorrow I will wake up to another message from a total stranger, telling me how he changed their lives,” Kirdahy said. “It happens every single day of my life, without fail, a parent who finally accepted their child's sexuality, a young person coming out, a playwright finding inspiration in his work, an audience member recounting a memory of a particularly magical night in the theater.” 

After the sign was unveiled, Caissie Levy and Brandon Uranowitz performed “Our Children,” accompanied by Stephen Flaherty. To close the ceremony, Brian Stokes Mitchell, who was in the original cast of Ragtime, gave a powerful rendition of “Make Them Hear You.” 

McNally and Kirdahy lived together on East 9th Street for many years — though Kirdahy said McNally was plenty settled on the block when they met in 2000. McNally “loved nothing more” than taking their dog on walks to Washington Square Park, and living amongst “so many artists and thinkers and students and dreamers in this neighborhood.”

“The village is known for its radical art, its defiant spirit. It has long been a home for people from all over the world who never really felt like they fit in until they found a place here in New York City,” said New York City Council member Carlina River, who passed the legislation to rename the street. “It's so fitting that we're co-naming this street in Terrence's honor, who embodies the spirit of our great city and this wonderful neighborhood.

“Is y’all ready…” asks a demon-clown named Lemon Pepper Wings, freshly spawned in anime cosplayer-garb from an empty swimming pool, “...for a mutha fuckin SHOW?” 

At this point in the script for Bowl EP, a wild, near-unclassifiable new work debuting at Vineyard Theatre (co-producing with National Black Theater, in association with The New Group), writer/director Nazareth Hassan predicts that an off-Broadway crowd likely won’t give Lemon Pepper Wings the enthusiastic reply she/he/they are looking for. 

“(audience is lame cuz theatre is lame),” Hassan sighs, via stage direction.

Too true. Thankfully, we have explosively theatrical work like Bowl EP to occasionally jolt us awake. The greatest thrill of Bowl EP is its full-hearted embrace of theatricality, even as Hassan looks to upend our more stagnant traditions while building a muscular, musical stage language all of their own. Only when Hassan loses focus on stagecraft in the piece’s more stagnant final section does this oft-rousing work ultimately falter. 

Bowl EP is equal parts abstract tragicomedy and rap elegy for lost love. In and around a drained swimming pool, two queer Black artists idle away the time skating, smoking, flirting and spitting rhymes. Scenic designers Adam Rigg and Anton Volovsek have impressively gutted the Vineyard space, placing the audience on all sides of the pool (their “bowl”) and conjuring a desolate urban landscape. This softhearted pair, Kelly K Klarkson (Essence Lotus) and Quentavius da Quitter (Oghenero Gbaje), plan to launch as a rap duo, and as the days pass (or weeks…or years?) the two workshop verses and throw out ideas for a group name.

“Raw Octopus?” “Raw Octupussy.” “Raw Octopus In My Pussy;” “Raw Octopus Make Me Vomit In My Own Pussy.” 

Wild suggestions parry back and forth, growing more deranged as Kelly and Quentavius get progressively more fucked up (vaping gives way to MDMA, which gives way to acid). The play’s first half floats dreamily through hazy vignettes, like a drugged-up Gen-Z twist on Waiting for Godot. Hassan is restrained and careful with language, dropping insights into the flirty, self-possessed Quentavius and the shyer, uncertain Kelly with precision. 

The text is refreshingly blunt about sex, kink and queer intimacy. This horny pair’s halting experimentation with biting and choking is depicted as awkward and a little dangerous, yet undeniably sexy. Gbaje and Lotus are both superb, skating around each other with tenderness and occasional (truthful) bursts of cruelty. 

A hard left-turn arrives with the entrance of Lemon Pepper Wings, a demon that bursts forth from inside Quentavius and takes charge of the play. Felicia Curry is astonishing and unsettling in the role, and at first, the jarring tonal shift is welcome. Goaded by LPW, Quentavius and Kelly rap their hearts out, and here Free Fool’s fierce music and defiant lyrics shine bright. 

But Hassan then shifts into a long, long monologue from LPW describing, in stultifying detail, the tragic future ahead for Quentavius and Kelly’s relationship. It’s a frustrating turn from showing to telling, and in spite of (or maybe because of) Curry’s manic delivery, this extended elegy grows tiresome. 

After losing much of its propulsive energy in this section, Bowl EP never quite regains its footing. But this is nonetheless a riveting, inventive new work, and a powerful announcement of a new talent in Hassan. 

Bowl EP is now in performance at the Vineyard Theatre in New York City. For tickets and more information, visit here. 

He’ll “make her a star!” Tony Award nominee Jordan Donica will step into the role of Max Von Mayerling in Sunset Boulevard on Tuesday June 10. David Thaxton, who transferred to Broadway with the production after receiving an Olivier Nomination for his performance as Max, will play his final performance on Sunday June 8.

Donica received a Tony nomination for his performance as Lancelot in the recent Broadway revival of Camelot.  He has also taken on the role of Freddy Eynsford-Hill in the original revival cast of My Fair Lady, Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera on Broadway, Rapunzel’s Prince in the New York City Center production of Into the Woods, and Javert in Les Misérables at The Muny.

Sunset Boulevard also stars Tony Award nominee and Drama League Award winner Nicole Scherzinger as Norma Desmond, Tony Award nominee Tom Francis as Joe Gillis, and Grace Hodgett Young as Betty Schaefer.

The iconic Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, based on the film of the same name, tells the story of the immortal silent-movie star Norma Desmond. Haunted by her memories and dreams of returning to the silver screen, Norma enlists the help of a struggling screenwriter to work on the script to her comeback. Drenched in champagne and cynicism, Sunset Boulevard scrutinizes the ambitions and frustrations of its characters and their intoxicating need for fame and adoration.

The production is the most Tony nominated revival of the season, with seven nominations, including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Direction of a Musical for Lloyd.

The creative team for Sunset Boulevard includes Soutra Gilmour (set and costume design), Fabian Aloise (choreography), Alan Williams (music supervisor and musical director), Jack Knowles (lighting design), Adam Fisher (sound design), Nathan Amzi and Joe Ransom (video design and cinematography), Jim Carnahan CSA and Jason Thinger CSA (US casting director), and Stuart Burt CDG (UK casting director).