Terrence McNally, a prolific playwright whose love of opera and compassion for human frailties wove their way into many of his works, died March 24 from complications of the coronavirus in a Sarasota, Fla., hospital. He was 81, and had lived with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for some time.

For a while, it seemed as if there were hardly a Broadway season that didn’t have a McNally show running.

Starting with 1965’s “And Things That Go Bump in the Night,” the St. Petersburg, Fla., native went on to win four Tony Awards, two of them back to back: for 1995’s comedy drama “Love! Valour! Compassion!” and the following year’s “Master Class,” in which Audra McDonald, 49, starred as a tormented opera student of a fictionalized diva Maria Callas.

Tonys also went to his books for the musicals “Kiss of the Spider Woman” (1993) and “Ragtime” (1998).
McDonald appeared again in the revival of his 1982 drama “Frankie and Johnny at the Clair de Lune,” which opened the same year McNally received a Tony for lifetime achievement.

“A huge part of me is gone,” said Chita Rivera, 87, who starred in McNally’s “The Rink,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “The Dancer’s Life” and “The Visit,” in a statement. “He helped to make me who I am as a person … Only God knows how much I will miss him.”

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