A ‘Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune’ that Terrence McNally would admire

Arts admin June 28, 2026 0 Comments

A ‘Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune’ that Terrence McNally would admire

The craft of acting obviously demands a willingness to tackle challenges. It’s the sine qua non of the job.

But even by that standard, what Cliff Blake is doing in “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune” is something special.

Blake experienced a stroke a year ago, and his recovery, though steady, has not always been smooth. So just before the start of Thursday night’s performance in the Plaza Black Box Theatre, a Psych Drama Company staffer informed the audience that she would be functioning as a prompter, ready to supply him with lines if needed.

Her help wasn’t needed. Not once.

Instead, Blake and costar Wendy Lippe teamed up to deliver a pair of scalding, close-to-the-bone performances in Terrence McNally’s comic drama about a one-night stand between Frankie, a jaded diner waitress, and Johnny, a loquacious short-order cook, that turns into a lot more.

According to Lippe, who heads Psych Drama Company as producing artistic director, Blake has not required assistance with lines a single time since performances began on June 19, and his doctors have said he is expected to make a full recovery.

Even when there are no medical complications involved, “Frankie and Johnny” is not easy to pull off. Yet under the direction of Julia Murney, this tiny fringe company actually does a better job in capturing the play’s essence than the 2019 Broadway production starring Audra McDonald and Michael Shannon did. This “Frankie and Johnny” deserves to be seen by a lot more people than the dozen spectators who were there Thursday night. It runs only through Sunday, and offers the chance not only to savor the memorable work of Murney, Blake, and Lippe, but also to acquaint — or reacquaint — yourself with McNally, one of the most consequential playwrights of his generation.

He died at 81 of complications from the coronavirus in March 2020, the same month when Broadway — where many of McNally’s plays had been presented over his six-decade career — closed its doors for what would become a year-and-a-half-long intermission. His death didn’t seem to get the attention it deserved, perhaps because the theater world, like the rest of the world, was reeling from the onset of the pandemic. But in 2023 Christopher Byrne published an aptly titled biography of McNally, “A Man of Much Importance,” and last month the musical adaptation of “Ragtime,” for which McNally wrote the book (i.e., script) won four Tony Awards.

McNally’s underlying argument in “Frankie and Johnny” — that love can heal and it’s never too late — may sound hackneyed. So might the setup of a passionate but friction-filled encounter between a seemingly mismatched but actually made-for-each-other duo. But they’re given an immediacy and even urgency by the Psych Drama Company production, which is set in the 1980s.

A major problem sits at the center of “Frankie and Johnny” that neither Murney nor any other director is able to fix. After Frankie and Johnny make love, he insists on sticking around even though she demands that he hit the road. “We gotta connect,” he tells her. “We just have to.” He keeps trying to convince her that they are soul mates. The fact that they ultimately prove to be just that doesn’t make the Act One scenes where he refuses to leave any less jarring.

The play takes place entirely in Frankie’s New York apartment. Designed by Allie Glavey, it exudes the weariness of its inhabitant, who’s in her late 40s. (Johnny is about to turn 60). A glamorous trysting spot it is not, with a small TV set propped on a box on the floor, a thinly populated bookcase, a drooping lampshade, copies of the New York Post stuffed in a metal rack, and a pullout couch.

Director Murney is a respected actress whose track record includes a stint on Broadway as Elphaba in “Wicked” and Drama Desk nominations for “The Wild Party” and “Falling.” Her direction of “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune” is both precise and free-flowing. She makes sure that at certain times we are intensely aware of how close Frankie and Johnny are, physically and otherwise; and at others, how distant.

By Act Two, the chemistry between Blake and Lippe has built to the point that we clearly sense that the stakes for Frankie and Johnny are equally high.

When I interviewed McNally in 2012, he said: “I like to surprise myself. I’ve always been attracted to projects where I don’t know how they’re going to turn out. If I ever evince bravery in my life, it tends to be at a keyboard.” I think he’d admire the bravery evinced by Blake and Lippe on the stage in “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.”

FRANKIE AND JOHNNY IN THE CLAIR DE LUNE

Play by Terrence McNally. Directed by Julia Murney. Presented by The Psych Drama Company. At Plaza Black Box Theatre, Boston Center for the Arts. Through June 28. Adults only (contains nudity). Tickets $55. BostonTheatreScene.com.