Sunday, December 21, 2003

The Sanctity of Civil Unions

Congratulations to Terrence McNally and Thomas Kerdahy.


Terrence McNally, the playwright, and Thomas Joseph Kirdahy, a public-interest lawyer, affirmed their partnership last evening at the Inn at Sawmill Farm in West Dover, Vt. Millicent B. Atkin, a justice of the peace for Dover, Vt., performed the civil union ceremony.

Mr. McNally, 65, won Tony awards for best play for "Love! Valour! Compassion!" (1995) and "Master Class" (1996) and for best book of a musical for his adaptations of "Kiss of the Spider Woman" (1993) and "Ragtime" (1998). Mr. McNally also wrote "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune" (1987) and "Lips Together, Teeth Apart"(1991).

Mr. McNally's latest play, "The Stendhal Syndrome," is to open in February at Primary Stages in New York, with a cast led by Isabella Rossellini and Richard Thomas.

Mr. McNally graduated from Columbia. His parents, the late Dorothy K. McNally and Hubert A. McNally, lived in Corpus Christi, Tex., where his father owned Ace Sales, a beer distributor.

Mr. Kirdahy, 40, is a public advocate in Riverhead, N.Y., with Nassau-Suffolk Law Services, a nonprofit program that provides legal assistance in civil matters to low-income clients. He specializes in representing people with H.I.V. or AIDS. He graduated from New York University, from which he also received his law degree.


Oddly, this doesn't make me want to get a divorce. How could that be?