As two couples spend the 4th of July in a house left to one of the women by her brother, a victim of AIDS, they mask their fear with desperate wit and hide inside uncomfortable marriages--each character struggling to come to terms with a world of anxious isolation haunted by ever-present death. A powerful play Frankie and Johnny.

Two middle-aged women embark on an oft times funny and moving journey of memory and discovery through mystical India. The Indian God Ganesha, who gently helps them reconcile personal loss and find their own spirituality and strength, accompanies the two women on their adventure.

The setting is a walk-up apartment on Manhattan's West Side where, as the curtain rises, Frankie (a waitress) and Johnny (a short-order cook who works in the same restaurant) are discovered in bed. It is their first encounter, after having met several weeks ago on the job, and Frankie is hopeful that Johnny will now put on his clothes and depart, so she can return to her usual routine of watching TV and eating ice cream. But Johnny, a compulsive talker...

"Since his first play, And Things That Go Bump in the Night, which premiered in 1965, McNally has proven himself to be a trailblazing figure and unique voice in American theater, known for his exploration of gay themes and his chronicling of America's changing social attitudes over the past fifty years. His thirty-three plays, nine musicals, three operas, and seven scripts for film and television, are a testament to his astonishing commitment to writing....

"Constructed as a series of vignettes, skits and brief incidents, the play portrays the life and attitude of one Tommy Flowers--irrepressible cut-up, determined freeloader and disenchanted rebel against society. In the course of his adventures he befriends a destitute old actor, acquires an oversized sheep dog (his best friend) and finds love with a beautiful music student (whom he meets in the ladies' room at Bloomingdale's). But as Tommy moves from...