Terrence McNally

Rita Moreno defied both her humble upbringing and relentless racism to become one of a select group who have won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Award. Over a seventy year career, she has paved the way for Hispanic-American performers by refusing to be pigeonholed into one-dimensional stereotypes.

The life of Tony-winning playwright Terrence McNally (Master Class, Ragtime): 60 years of groundbreaking plays and musicals, the struggle for gay rights, addiction and recovery, finding true love, and the relentless pursuit of inspiration.

A newspaper columnist becomes determined to clear a woman who is blamed for the death of her child in a tragic fire.

A retrospective of Chita Rivera's film, television and stage career, including interviews with Dick Van Dyke, Ben Vereen, Carol Lawrence and others. Originally aired as Episode 2 of Season 43 of the PBS series Great Performances.

Terrence McNally’s Corpus Christi is a play retelling the Jesus story, with Jesus as a gay man living in the 1950s in Corpus Christi, Texas. This documentary follows the troupe, playwright, and audience around the world on a five-year journey of Terrence McNally’s passion play, where voices of protest and support collide on one of the central issues facing the LGBT community: religion.

A documentary exploring the creation of the new musical Ragtime, based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow.

Heart of Broadway goes inside Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS for an in-depth look at the organization and its key players. Since 1988, they have raised more than $195 million for essential services for people with AIDS and other critical illnesses.

The untold story of how legal pioneer Mary Bonauto partnered with small town Vermont lawyers Beth Robinson and Susan Murray in a 2-decade long struggle that built the foundation for the entire marriage equality movement. Despite fierce opposition, Vermont became the first state to grant same sex couples legal recognition through a groundbreaking 1999 State Supreme Court decision, and the first to legalize marriage equality by legislative vote in 2009. HRC's Marty Rouse said, "They really changed the course of American history." Featuring Freedom to Marry founder Evan Wolfson, civil rights legend Rep. John Lewis, and Tony-winning playwright Terrence McNally.

The Emmy Award-nominated 30 Years from Here examines the AIDS pandemic over the past 30 years. Activists and medical experts that share stories include Terrence McNally, Larry Kramer, Marjorie Hill, Frank Spinelli, Jerry Mitchell, and Larry Flick.

When Johnny is released from prison following a forgery charge, he quickly lands a job as a short-order cook at a New York diner. Following a brief fling with waitress Cora, he develops an attraction for Cora's friend and fellow waitress Frankie. While Frankie resists Johnny's charms initially, she eventually relents when her best friend, Tim, persuades her to give Johnny a chance.

To escape from a mobster, businessman Gaetano Proclo orders a cab driver to take him to a place where he can't be found. Unfortunately for Gaetano, the place turns out to be a gay bathhouse.

Celebrate the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical Ragtime with this once-in-a-lifetime reunion concert featuring original cast members, including Audra McDonald, Brian Stokes Mitchell, and Peter Friedman, joined by Kelli O’Hara.

This movie contains three short stories dealing with the theme of homosexuality. In "A Friend of Dorothy", a woman joins the Navy during the 1950s and discovers lesbianism. In "Mr. Roberts", a teacher in a 1970s classroom struggles with his closeted gay status. Finally in "Amos and Andy", a father wrestles with his own emotional acceptance of a present day wedding between his son and another man.

A group of gay friends spend summer weekends together at a lakeside house in upstate New York. As the season progresses and secrets begin to surface, the complex relationships within the group are sometimes strained and sometimes strengthened.

Backstage at the Metropolitan Opera House a soprano is preparing for her debut in the opera Tosca. The stage manager gives her encouraging advice. She is visited by her "tenor for the evening." Equally terrified and nervous yet excited, she thinks fondly of her brother, who died from AIDS. He appears to her in her dressing room as a ghostly apparition.

The Boston Pops performs Ragtime: The Symphonic Concert, prepared by the original creators Terrence McNally, Lynn Ahrens, and Stephen Flaherty especially for the Pops. Based on the 1975 novel by E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime weaves together the stories of three intersecting groups in the U.S. in the early 20th century: Eastern European immigrants, the African American community in Harlem, and an upper-class white family. Together, they confront history's timeless tensions of wealth and poverty, freedom and prejudice, hope and despair.

Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS presents a 2013 concert celebrating Chita Rivera's 80th birthday as a fundraiser to aid struggling artists during the pandemic. Chita offers a musical retrospective of her career in the theatre with guest stars Tommy Tune and Ben Vereen. Includes songs from 'Seventh Heaven,' 'West Side Story,' 'Bye Bye Birdie,' 'The Happy Time,' 'Jacques Brel Is Alive and Well and Living in Paris,' 'Chicago,' 'The Rink,' 'Kiss of the Spider Woman,' & 'The Visit,' among others.

Katherine Gerard has lost her son Andre to AIDS. At his memorial service, we follow Katherine confronting the death of her son, the anguish of his lover Cal Porter, and, in flashbacks, the key moments of denial and miscommunication with those closest to her.

It is opening night on Broadway, and an unforgettable cast of characters, from the self-possessed leading lady to the starry-eyed coat check boy, is eagerly awaiting “rave” reviews. Equal parts uproarious and heartfelt, It’s Only a Play will remind you why there’s no business like show business.

American composer Jake Heggie’s compelling masterpiece, the most widely performed new opera of the last 20 years, arrives in cinemas in a haunting new production by Ivo van Hove. Based on Sister Helen Prejean’s memoir about her fight for the soul of a condemned murderer, Dead Man Walking matches the high drama of its subject with Heggie’s beautiful and poignant music and a brilliant libretto by Tony and Emmy Award–winner Terrence McNally. Met Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes the podium, with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato starring as Sister Helen. The outstanding cast also features bass-baritone Ryan McKinny as the death-row inmate Joseph De Rocher, soprano Latonia Moore as Sister Rose, and legendary mezzo-soprano Susan Graham—who sang Helen Prejean in the opera’s 2000 premiere—as De Rocher’s mother.