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
Christopher Durang, one of American’s most acclaimed and accomplished playwrights whose works like Beyond Therapy, Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You and the Tony-winning Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike were as incisive as they were absurdly comic, died Tuesday night at his home in Pipersville, Pa., in Bucks County. He was 75.
His agent, Patrick Herold, confirmed that Durang died as a result complications of his 2016 diagnosis with logopenic primary progressive aphasia (Ppa), a form of Alzheimer’s disease that impedes the ability to process language. He remained out of the public spotlight since his condition was made public in 2022. In February, New York’s Dramatists Guild announced that the playwright would receive its 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award on May 6, placing Durang on a prestigious roster alongside such past awardees as John Guare, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Miller.
Born Christopher Ferdinand Durang on January 2, 1949, Durang soared to...
His agent, Patrick Herold, confirmed that Durang died as a result complications of his 2016 diagnosis with logopenic primary progressive aphasia (Ppa), a form of Alzheimer’s disease that impedes the ability to process language. He remained out of the public spotlight since his condition was made public in 2022. In February, New York’s Dramatists Guild announced that the playwright would receive its 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award on May 6, placing Durang on a prestigious roster alongside such past awardees as John Guare, Stephen Sondheim and Arthur Miller.
Born Christopher Ferdinand Durang on January 2, 1949, Durang soared to...
- 4/3/2024
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Christopher Durang, one of American theater’s most accomplished and acclaimed playwrights, has been diagnosed with logopenic primary progressive aphasia (Ppa), a rare disorder of language which, according to a newly published report, “has curbed the prolific author’s career.”
The disclosure of Durang’s condition was made by the playwright’s family and friends to the website Broadway News.
“This illness is a terrible illness,” said André Bishop, producing artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater and friend of the playwright. “For a writer, in particular, who deals in words, to not be able to find those words is a great sadness.”
The diagnosis marks the second high-profile case to be disclosed in recent months, following the announcement in March that Bruce Willis is stepping away from acting due to aphasia.
According to Broadway News, Durang began showing symptoms in 2012 and a neurologist diagnosed aphasia. A second opinion was sought...
The disclosure of Durang’s condition was made by the playwright’s family and friends to the website Broadway News.
“This illness is a terrible illness,” said André Bishop, producing artistic director of Lincoln Center Theater and friend of the playwright. “For a writer, in particular, who deals in words, to not be able to find those words is a great sadness.”
The diagnosis marks the second high-profile case to be disclosed in recent months, following the announcement in March that Bruce Willis is stepping away from acting due to aphasia.
According to Broadway News, Durang began showing symptoms in 2012 and a neurologist diagnosed aphasia. A second opinion was sought...
- 7/19/2022
- by Greg Evans
- Deadline Film + TV
Richard Gilliland, a veteran character actor known for his work in “Designing Women” and “Airplane II: The Sequel,” and the husband to actress Jean Smart, has died. He was 71.
Gilliland died on March 18 in Los Angeles following a brief illness, his publicist told TheWrap.
The actor spent five years on the ’80s sitcom “Designing Women,” playing J.D. Shackelford, the boyfriend of Annie Potts’ character, Mary Jo Shively. Gilliland and Smart met on the show and got married in 1987. The two also shared the screen in a season of “24” in 2006.
Jean Smart and Richard Gilliland in 2020/Getty Images
He and Smart also worked together in stage productions of “It Had to Be You” and “Love Letters,” as well as the telefilms “Just My Imagination” and “Audrey’s Rain.”
Gilliland has over 90 acting credits in film and TV dating back to the 1970s, including dozens of guest appearances on shows such as “Criminal Minds,...
Gilliland died on March 18 in Los Angeles following a brief illness, his publicist told TheWrap.
The actor spent five years on the ’80s sitcom “Designing Women,” playing J.D. Shackelford, the boyfriend of Annie Potts’ character, Mary Jo Shively. Gilliland and Smart met on the show and got married in 1987. The two also shared the screen in a season of “24” in 2006.
Jean Smart and Richard Gilliland in 2020/Getty Images
He and Smart also worked together in stage productions of “It Had to Be You” and “Love Letters,” as well as the telefilms “Just My Imagination” and “Audrey’s Rain.”
Gilliland has over 90 acting credits in film and TV dating back to the 1970s, including dozens of guest appearances on shows such as “Criminal Minds,...
- 3/25/2021
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
One Flew Over the Butcher Shop: Altman’s Klutzy Crafting of “Beyond Therapy” (1987) | Blu-ray Review
The 1980s were a difficult period for Robert Altman, stumbling into the decade with two high profile projects, HealtH and Popeye, both poorly received. Although several titles from this era are worthy of reconsideration and/or are among some of his best, time has not been kind to all of them. Perhaps chief amongst these is his 1987 comedic failing Beyond Therapy, based on Christopher Durang’s (who co-wrote the script) Broadway play.
Featuring Altman’s usual predilections and shot in Paris despite being set in New York, it’s an odd mix of sexual identity politics and slapstick comedy (think Bringing Up Baby or His Girl Friday) but with jarring tonal shifts, ungainly editing and two highly unlikeable lead performances.…...
Featuring Altman’s usual predilections and shot in Paris despite being set in New York, it’s an odd mix of sexual identity politics and slapstick comedy (think Bringing Up Baby or His Girl Friday) but with jarring tonal shifts, ungainly editing and two highly unlikeable lead performances.…...
- 3/31/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Above: character posters for Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Hotel Artemis (2018).Jeff Goldblum is having a moment. After being in movies for 45 years, the 6'4" 66-year-old actor is suddenly the coolest man on the planet. He was all over Sundance last week with his new film, The Mountain, and starting today the Quad Cinema in New York is playing “The Goldblum Variations,” a retrospective of sixteen of the tall guy’s best films.Ever since his debut as Freak #1 in Michael Winner’s Death Wish (1974), Goldblum has been a compelling, quirky presence in movies. He was a supporting player for some ten years before his break-out role in Lawrence Kasdan’s The Big Chill (1983) which led to starring roles in John Landis’ Into the Night (1985) and David Cronenberg’s The Fly (1986). His major leading man period lasted about a decade before he comfortably became an ensemble player once again (naturally fitting right...
- 2/8/2019
- MUBI
Beyond Therapy: Brown’s Illogical Entry of Femme Revenge
For the most part, director Matthew A. Brown presents his directorial debut Julia without the exploitative flourishes notoriously featured in the classic genre cinema influencing his narrative. A rape revenger thriller that basically plays like a sanitized version of 1978’s I Spit on Your Grave (recently remade in 2010, followed by two sequels, items that only prove you can take the tale out of the 70s but perhaps not the other way round), Brown creates a compelling vehicle for actress Ashley C. Williams, whose name may not ever be mentioned without reference to her ‘participation’ in contemporary torture porn’s most iconic confection, The Human Centipede (2009). Despite its still relevant ‘take back the night’ yearning, Brown seems uninterested in patching up a variety of major illogical plot holes plaguing the initial set-up while failing to achieve anything innovative by way of an achingly predictable finale.
For the most part, director Matthew A. Brown presents his directorial debut Julia without the exploitative flourishes notoriously featured in the classic genre cinema influencing his narrative. A rape revenger thriller that basically plays like a sanitized version of 1978’s I Spit on Your Grave (recently remade in 2010, followed by two sequels, items that only prove you can take the tale out of the 70s but perhaps not the other way round), Brown creates a compelling vehicle for actress Ashley C. Williams, whose name may not ever be mentioned without reference to her ‘participation’ in contemporary torture porn’s most iconic confection, The Human Centipede (2009). Despite its still relevant ‘take back the night’ yearning, Brown seems uninterested in patching up a variety of major illogical plot holes plaguing the initial set-up while failing to achieve anything innovative by way of an achingly predictable finale.
- 10/25/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Long unavailable for home viewing, Robert Altman’s 1982 title Come Back to the 5 and Dime Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean has languished as a remote, minor title of the auteur’s filmography, trotted out to devotees at retrospectives. Based on the play by Ed Graczyk and featuring a bevy of eclectic actresses, it’s often and unfairly lumped into consideration with Altman’s other adaptations of stage material from the time period, including David Rabe’s Streamers (1983), Sam Shepard’s Fool For Love (1985) and Christopher Durang’s Beyond Therapy (1987). Often described as typically Altmanesque with its examination of Americana, a dialogue heavy showcase of melodrama squeezed from the banalities of everyday existence, at last it’s available for a wider appreciation, ripe for a recuperation as more than a mere trifle lost in a flood of greater titles from an American auteur.
It’s 1975 and a group of extreme James Dean fans,...
It’s 1975 and a group of extreme James Dean fans,...
- 11/25/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
TACTThe Actors Company Theatre presents Beyond Therapy, the hilarious comedy by Christopher Durang, the modern master of the outrageous and absurd and recipient of the 2013 'Best Play' Tony Award for Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was there for opening night and you can check out what Durang, the cast, and the evening's biggest guests had to say about the play below...
- 3/26/2014
- by BroadwayWorld TV
- BroadwayWorld.com
New cast members have been announced for Three Day Hangover's Big Boozy Benefit, an event supporting the company's awesome 2014 Season Jennifer Mudge Rocky, Autumn Hurlbert NBC's The Sound of Music Live, Allison Guinn Hair, Stephen Plunkett War Horse, The Mend, Chad Goodridge Passing Strange, January Lavoy Enron, and Liv Rooth Beyond Therapy, Venus in Fur will join the previously announced cast members, all of whom represent a crazy-talented and ridiculously good-looking group of actors from Broadway, film and TV.
- 3/19/2014
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
The following "Auditions at a Glance" calendar conveniently organizes projects by the date and day-of-the-week that the projects' auditions are taking place, to help you schedule your plans. Click on any of the following links to see the casting and job notices related to the dates and project titles highlighted below. Fri. Nov. 15 'All the Way', Broadway 'Beyond Therapy' 'Manhattan Fable-The Actress Who Cried Wolf!' Theatre of the Oppressed Workshop The Flea Theater Bat's, New Members 'The Only Things I Know for Sure' Three Commercial Spots Sat. Nov. 16 'America's Got Talent' Season 9 'Industry Showcase Night' 'R0M30 & Ju£13+' 'The Last Five Years' Three Commercial Spots Sun. Nov. 17 'America's Got Talent' Season 9 'Industry Showcase Night' 'R0M30 & Ju£13+' Three Commercial Spots Mon. Nov. 18 'Bring It On', Non-Equity Tour, Singers Disney's 'The Lion King', Dancers 'Fiddler on the Roof' 'Gypsy Housing...
- 11/14/2013
- backstage.com
Bailey (the newborn, not the doctor) runs his parents so adorably ragged in this week’s Grey’s Anatomy that Derek takes a nap in the car while on a milk run and Meredith is forced to admit, “I smell like an old couch.” Wait. It gets better…
Related | Grey’s Anatomy‘s Alex and Jo: Small ‘Bumps’ — and a Big Blast From the Past — Lie Ahead
The Parent Trap | When Bailey gets hungry, Derek turns to Meredith and deadpans, “My nipples are of no use to him.” Later, Mer reveals that no, that isn’t a new kind of styling gel in her hair,...
Related | Grey’s Anatomy‘s Alex and Jo: Small ‘Bumps’ — and a Big Blast From the Past — Lie Ahead
The Parent Trap | When Bailey gets hungry, Derek turns to Meredith and deadpans, “My nipples are of no use to him.” Later, Mer reveals that no, that isn’t a new kind of styling gel in her hair,...
- 10/4/2013
- by Andy Patrick
- TVLine.com
New York — Christopher Durang's comical "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike" has won the best play Tony Award.
The play, which takes characters and themes from Anton Chekhov and sets them in present-day Pennsylvania, stars Sigourney Weaver, Kristine Nielsen and David Hyde Pierce. It centers on three middle-aged siblings uneasily negotiating with age and hysterically mixes in references to Lindsay Lohan, Maggie Smith and ancient Greek drama.
Durang, whose other works include the play "Beyond Therapy," was a Tony nominee for "A History of the American Film" and his "Miss Witherspoon" was a Pulitzer Prize nominee in 2006.
"Vanya and Sonia" beat out Tony contenders "The Assembled Parties," "Lucky Guy" and "The Testament of Mary."...
The play, which takes characters and themes from Anton Chekhov and sets them in present-day Pennsylvania, stars Sigourney Weaver, Kristine Nielsen and David Hyde Pierce. It centers on three middle-aged siblings uneasily negotiating with age and hysterically mixes in references to Lindsay Lohan, Maggie Smith and ancient Greek drama.
Durang, whose other works include the play "Beyond Therapy," was a Tony nominee for "A History of the American Film" and his "Miss Witherspoon" was a Pulitzer Prize nominee in 2006.
"Vanya and Sonia" beat out Tony contenders "The Assembled Parties," "Lucky Guy" and "The Testament of Mary."...
- 6/10/2013
- by AP
- Huffington Post
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
Director Robert Altman.
Robert Altman: Eclectic Maverick
By
Alex Simon
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the April 1999 issue of Venice Magazine.
It's the Fall of 1977 and I'm a bored and rebellious ten year old in search of a new movie to occupy my underworked and creativity-starved brain, feeling far too mature for previous favorites Wily Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Return of the Pink Panther (1975), and wanting something more up-to-date and edgy than Chaplin's City Lights (1931). I needed a movie to call my favorite that would be symbolic of my own new-found manhood (and something that would really piss off my parents and teachers). Mom and Dad were going out for the evening, leaving me with whatever unfortunate baby-sitter happened to need the $10 badly enough to play mother hen to an obnoxiously precocious only child like myself. I scanned the TV Guide for what...
Robert Altman: Eclectic Maverick
By
Alex Simon
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the April 1999 issue of Venice Magazine.
It's the Fall of 1977 and I'm a bored and rebellious ten year old in search of a new movie to occupy my underworked and creativity-starved brain, feeling far too mature for previous favorites Wily Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (1971) and Return of the Pink Panther (1975), and wanting something more up-to-date and edgy than Chaplin's City Lights (1931). I needed a movie to call my favorite that would be symbolic of my own new-found manhood (and something that would really piss off my parents and teachers). Mom and Dad were going out for the evening, leaving me with whatever unfortunate baby-sitter happened to need the $10 badly enough to play mother hen to an obnoxiously precocious only child like myself. I scanned the TV Guide for what...
- 2/15/2013
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
How well do actors and directors recall the details of their own work? We decided to put Emmy- and Tony-winning actor David Hyde Pierce to the test. The Frasier actor is now starring Off Broadway in Manhattan Theatre Club’s Close Up Space (opening Dec. 19) as a harried book editor with an estranged daughter, a scared intern, a useless office manager, and only one brilliant (if loud) author. But first, he must play Ken Jennings in our career Jeopardy! challenge. The category: his 30 years in showbiz.
1. In what theater did you make your Broadway debut in 1982′s Beyond Therapy?
The Brooks Atkinson Theatre.
1. In what theater did you make your Broadway debut in 1982′s Beyond Therapy?
The Brooks Atkinson Theatre.
- 12/19/2011
- by Aubry D'Arminio
- EW.com - PopWatch
The shows for Surfside Player's 51st season have been announced, they include: At the Mainstage will show Frost/Nixon, by Peter Morgan, Harvey, by Mary Chase, Prisoner of Second Avenue, by Neil Simon, Chicago, book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse, Music by John Kander, Lyrics by Fred Ebb, Fiddler on the Roof, book by Joseph Stein, Music by Jerry Bock, Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick At the Second Stage will show Boy Gets Girl, by Rebecca Gilman, Beyond Therapy, by Christopher Durang There will also be Special Events like The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Holiday Cabaret Further information: 783-3127 or www.surfsideplayers.com.
- 1/15/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
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