Tyne DalyIn his 1990 PBS teleplay Andre’s Mother, Terrence McNally wrote about a woman, Katharine, who couldn’t grieve the death of her son to complications from AIDS. In spring 2014, Katharine will return in Broadway’s Mothers and Sons, a sequel that stars Tony-winner Tyne Daly (of TV’s Cagney & Lacey and the Great White Way’s Gypsy) as the troubled mom who, years later, shows up at the door of her son’s former lover.

McNally, who is gay and has lost two lovers to AIDS, also explored these themes in Lips Together, Teeth Apart and Love! Valour! Compassion! He spoke with POZ about that history. “When I first came to New York from Texas in 1955 as a gay man, I was 17,” he recalls. “Gay bars were in basements, unmarked firetraps. And now, in my lifetime, Tom and I are legally married, and in this new play, the couple even has a child. Gay life has changed, and AIDS is a huge part of that. I don’t think there was much of a gay community before AIDS.”