Terrence McNally has written more than two-dozen plays over the past three decades, some with characters and themes and construction similar to Love! Valour! Compassion! In Lips Together, Teeth Apart (1991), two straight, married couples meet for a Fourth of July weekend at the Fire Island home recently left to one of the women by her brother who died of AIDS. The setting causes them to face many troubling issues including their homophobia, failing marriages, and fear of death.

McNally received a Tony Award for Best Play the year after Love! Valour! Compassion! with his biographical play Master Class (1996) about the legendary opera diva Maria Callas. On the surface, Master Class seems to present a series of voice classes Callas offered at Julliard toward the end of her career. Underneath, though, the play explores the relationship between art and artist and...