Just posted this comment there.
Re Mothers and Sons: I'm a gay man — and a native New Yorker — who found Katharine a tremendously sympathetic character. It seems to me that she is perhaps something of a self-portrait on McNally's part. Certainly McNally gives her plenty of experiences with which we can empathize. In fact, the other characters all empathize with her, even if Cal and Will don't really want to feel empathy for her. That is clearly part of the point of the play: These characters are a family, even if they don't know it till the end of the play.
Mr. Zoglin right about one thing: It's a bit of a stretch that a woman who reads The New Yorker does not know what the AIDS quilt is.
Mr. Zoglin writes that Tyne Daly "is about as convincing playing a Dallas matron as Kim Kardashian would be playing Mother Teresa." But the character is not a Texas native. She grew up in a working-class community in Westchester. This is repeatedly emphasized. She repeatedly says how out of place she feels in Texas, even after living there for decades. She mentions her home town again and again.
Mr. Zoglin writes that Rent is "sort of the original New York musical." It's a good thing he said "sort of." Any moderately comprehensive list of "New York musicals" would go back decades and would include Guys and Doll, On the Town, The New Yorkers, West Side Story, Knickerbocker Holiday, Dearest Enemy, Company, Promises, Promises, Up in Central Park, Bells Are Ringing, Sweet Charity, Wonderful Town, Mame, Fiorello! and many more. A list of classic and semi-classic New York musicals would go on and on and on.
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