Terrence McNally’s Golden Dawn

Some artists never lose their boyish looks. Jonathan Franzen, John Dowd, Terrence McNally—all these men seem to retain those adolescent smiles. As Terrence McNally shakes my hand by the fireplace of his Greenwich Village apartment, his stray-dog eyes instantly accept me. I sense his reassuring look.

“My husband, Tom, is a good lawyer,” Terrence says proudly, if shyly, about Tom Kirdahy, who’s in the kitchen fiddling with their espresso machine. “I mean, he’s the good kind of lawyer. He does pr...