When playwright Terrence McNally won the 1996 Tony Award for "Master Class," he thanked the late opera singer Maria Callas "for bringing beauty and passion and integrity to my life." But "Master Class" wasn't the first time Callas figured prominently in a McNally play. More than a decade earlier, the playwright wrote "The Lisbon Traviata," a play named for one of Callas' pirated recordings.
Now "The Lisbon Traviata" is receiving its belated Baltimore premiere at Everyman Theatre, where it opens tomorrow. Under the direction of Grover Gardner, the production stars Jeffrey Keenan and Timmy Ray James as a pair of Callas fanatics. The theater cautions that the play contains adult subject matter.
