Playwright Terrence McNally Weds Producer Tom Kirdahy

Tony-winning playwright and librettist Terrence McNally married his partner of almost 10 years, producer Tom Kirdahy, on April 6 in a ceremony held on the banks of the Potomac River in Washington, DC, according to the Associated Press. The couple had been united in a civil ceremony in Vermont in 2001, but decided to take advantage of DC’s newly enacted law legalizing same-sex marriage. "We want the 'M' word," McNally told the A.P. "We don't like separate but equal. We want equal."

The ceremony was conducted by the Rev. George Walker of the People’s Congregational United Church of Christ. Participants included actress Tyne Daly, who is currently starring as Maria Callas in Master Class in the Kennedy Center's month-long festival of McNally’s work. Actors John Glover and Malcolm Gets, stars of the Kennedy Center’s revival of The Lisbon Traviata, were witnesses.

Kirdahy, a 46-year-old civil rights attorney and a producer of McNally's Deuce and the Broadway revival of Ragtime, told the A.P. that he fell in love at first sight with his 71-year-old husband. During the wedding ceremony, he read a scene from McNally's Corpus Christi in which a gay Christ-like figure named Joshua marries two apostles.

The couple’s relationship has included McNally’s battle with lung cancer, from which he recovered. The four-time Tony winner said of marrying Kirdahy, "I'm so glad I waited. I don't expect to be visiting a divorce lawyer."