Christopher Durang, a Tony Award-winning playwright who specialized in a particular form of brainy and absurdist comedy, has died. He was 75. The cause was complications from a form of dementia known as logopenic primary progressive aphasia, according to his husband John Augustine.
Durang was best known for writing 1979’s “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You,” a popular dissection of Catholic doctrine that was frequently staged, drawing occasional protests for its iconoclastic take on religion. A film version, starring Diane Keaton as the title character, aired on Showtime in 2001.
Another Durang play, 1981’s “Beyond Therapy,” which looked at Manhattanites who cope with romantic neurosis with the help of their psychiatrists, was also adapted for the screen by Robert Altman. Despite having a cast that included Glenda Jackson and Jeff Goldblum, critics excoriated the 1987 film as flat and unfunny. It was an opinion shared by Durang, who described it as...
Durang was best known for writing 1979’s “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You,” a popular dissection of Catholic doctrine that was frequently staged, drawing occasional protests for its iconoclastic take on religion. A film version, starring Diane Keaton as the title character, aired on Showtime in 2001.
Another Durang play, 1981’s “Beyond Therapy,” which looked at Manhattanites who cope with romantic neurosis with the help of their psychiatrists, was also adapted for the screen by Robert Altman. Despite having a cast that included Glenda Jackson and Jeff Goldblum, critics excoriated the 1987 film as flat and unfunny. It was an opinion shared by Durang, who described it as...
- 4/3/2024
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
John McCormack, a longtime behind-the-scenes force in Off Broadway theater, died Monday, May 18, at his home in Queens, New York from complications related to Covid-19. He was 61.
McCormack’s death was announced by Off Broadway’s Intar Theatre, where he was executive director.
During a nearly 40-year career, McCormack was an influential player in New York theater, working in producing, artistic director and executive positions at such companies as Ensemble Studio Theatre, Naked Angels, the Zipper Theater, his own company All Seasons Theater, and, since 2006, Intar.
Many of the performers and writers he championed would go on to successful careers in theater, film and television. Among the artists whose careers he impacted over the years were actors Kevin Bacon, Patricia Clarkson, Rob Morrow; playwrights Warren Leight, Richard Greenberg, Lucas Hnath and Alan Zweibel; director Mark Brokaw and artistic directors Douglas Aibel, Bernard Telsey and Christopher Ashley, among many others.
“Nobody...
McCormack’s death was announced by Off Broadway’s Intar Theatre, where he was executive director.
During a nearly 40-year career, McCormack was an influential player in New York theater, working in producing, artistic director and executive positions at such companies as Ensemble Studio Theatre, Naked Angels, the Zipper Theater, his own company All Seasons Theater, and, since 2006, Intar.
Many of the performers and writers he championed would go on to successful careers in theater, film and television. Among the artists whose careers he impacted over the years were actors Kevin Bacon, Patricia Clarkson, Rob Morrow; playwrights Warren Leight, Richard Greenberg, Lucas Hnath and Alan Zweibel; director Mark Brokaw and artistic directors Douglas Aibel, Bernard Telsey and Christopher Ashley, among many others.
“Nobody...
- 6/1/2020
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Christopher Durang and Sigourney Weaver have done nicely since meeting at the Yale School of Drama in the early seventies. Durang has written dozens of plays (including Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You and Beyond Therapy) and acted on TV and in films. Weaver, after besting a particularly resilient space creature in her underwear, was launched into movie-stardom, returning frequently to the theater, sometimes in plays by her old friend Chris. His Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike—just transferred to Broadway—is a typically Durangian stew with heavy Chekhovian seasoning, in which Weaver, David Hyde Pierce, and Kristine Nelson star as unhappy siblings Masha, Vanya, and Sonia. At our lunch in New York, Durang showed up in a full-leg cast, pushed in a wheelchair by his partner, John Augustine.What on Earth have you done to yourself? Christopher Durang: It was during a reading of Kiss Me,...
- 3/16/2013
- by Mary Kaye Schilling
- Vulture
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