It's Only a Play Archives - TheaterScene.net

It’s Only a Play

Terrence McNally (1938–2020): Theater Changes Hearts

October 31, 2026

Terrence McNally, the four-time Tony-winning playwright of Love! Valour! Compassion!, Master Class and Ragtime, died March 24, 2020, at 81. Looking back at 16 TheaterScene.net reviews and columns, from Mothers and Sons to Lincoln Center Theater's Ragtime. [more]

On The Town .. With Chip Deffaa .. Dec 12, 2014

December 12, 2014

Its Only a Play marquee As the year winds down, I’d like to use today’s column to look back on [more]

It’s Only a Play

November 27, 2014

The revival of Terrence McNally's theater comedy, It's Only a Play, has the starriest cast in town. It reunites Tony Award winners Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick for the third time, and throws in for good measure Oscar Award winner F. Murray Abraham, Tony Award winner Stockard Channing, Harry Potter regular Rupert Grint, and Emmy Award winner Megan Mullally. This is probably just as well as this 1985 farce was slight in its Off Broadway production and in its first Broadway appearance, drastically updated, it seems even thinner. Jack O'Brien, who usually directs stronger stuff, pilots the expert cast around their paces. [more]