Special Reports

The WTFs: Nathan Lane Name-Checks Himself in the Name-Checkiest Play of 2014

”It’s Only a Play” goes hardcore meta in TheaterMania’s look back at the strangest stories of the year.

As 2014 draws to a close, TheaterMania looks back on some of the most jaw-dropping stories of the year with the 2014 WTFs.

Megan Mullally and Nathan Lane share a laugh in the revival of Terrence McNally's It's Only a Play, directed by Jack O'Brien, at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.
Megan Mullally and Nathan Lane share a laugh in the revival of Terrence McNally's It's Only a Play, directed by Jack O'Brien, at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre.
(© Joan Marcus)

If you're not referenced specifically by name in the Broadway revival of Terrence McNally's It's Only a Play, you're no one in this town. That is one of the takeaways of the three-hour barrage off-Broadway playwright and C-list celebrity names that nightly assaults the stage of the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. Young Jean Lee, Tovah Feldshuh, Ben Brantley…they all get a shout-out.

Perhaps the most self-referential moment of the play comes when Nathan Lane's character James Wicker, learns that the chief critic of The Times preferred his replacement, Harvey Fierstein, for the masculine presence he brought to the stage. Lane peers out at the audience and says, "Nathan Lane I could accept but Harvey Fierstein?" The audience explodes.

We assume that line will change to "Martin Short" when the former SNL cast member replaces Lane on January 7. We suspect, however, that it won't have the same punch coming from such a stalwart butch heterosexual.

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