Producer Tom Kirdahy knows how lucky he is to have married one of the greatest contemporary playwrights to have graced the American theater, Terrence McNally, who passed away in 2020 due to complications from COVID-19. He gets to pull from McNally’s deep well of works that keep him connected to the late, celebrated artist.
In addition to producing the Jonathan Groff-led Bobby Darin biopic, Just in Time (an idea that McNally pushed him to do with this specific leading man), he’s also serving as a producer on two more of McNally’s works: the second Broadway revival of Ragtime and the Kiss of the Spider Woman film, the latter of which just hit theaters today. (McNally wrote the book for each.)
The film is eight years in the making, and it was first presented to the lead, Jennifer Lopez, back in 2017. Kirdahy says he initially pitched the idea as a Broadway revival, which she immediately showed interest in but couldn’t commit to due to her busy schedule.
The following year, Bill Condon (the film’s director, who is known for his work on Chicago and Dreamgirls) met with McNally and the Broadway show’s legendary composer, John Kander, to express interest in making a film adaptation of Spider Woman. The idea sat on ice for two years until about four months after McNally’s death, when Kirdahy sent a message to Condon telling him that the best way to honor his late husband’s legacy was by making this film. Condon immediately agreed, and the two got the ball rolling.
By 2023, the two had a script that was handed off to Lopez, who fell in love with the project and signed on to play Aurora, as well as Diego Luna, who took on the role of Valentin Arregui. The last of the leads to be cast was Luis Molina, who eventually went to Tonatiuh (who beat out 800 others in the audition). Over the course of three months, a relatively short time span, the team filmed the movie between a prison they found in Uruguay and a soundstage in New Jersey. “I think this is the best iteration of Spider Woman there’s ever been because we’re not trapped in a binary notion of what gender is, and [it’s clear that] the relationship between Molina and Valentin is about love,” Kirdahy says, stressing that there was a lot of pressure to get it right.
When asked where he felt the source of that pressure coming from, he pointed to the importance of the legacy of Kiss of the Spider Woman, but he also “cared deeply about queer representation and representation for populations that have historically been underrepresented.” It was important to Kirdahy and Condon that they got the representation correct, having the queer character played by a queer actor and the lead roles played by Latin actors. (In the 1985 film version, William Hurt won an Oscar for portraying the part of Molina.)
Tonatiuh’s gender fluidity proved essential for the role in this film, as they play Molina and Kendall Nesbit (Ingrid Luna’s assistant and best friend), who seamlessly transition between masculinity and femininity on screen. “In 1983, when the movie takes place, we didn’t have access to the language or the health care, or any of the things that would have made that easier for her as a character,” Kirdahy explains. “In the stage version, historically, it has been about Molina’s envy of a woman being able to be in love with her leading man, and in this movie version, it’s about Molina’s desire to be a woman.”
He says that getting the green light for Spider Woman and getting to work on Ragtime, two politically potent pieces in McNally’s catalogue, was “bittersweet.” It’s an opportunity to continue connecting with his late husband, and he says that he “talks to him every day,” working on these two projects. “I feel like the luckiest guy on the planet that I get to bring these works into the world, especially in Trump’s America, when we’ve got to fight with every fiber of our beings,” he says. “Now more than ever, I admire what was on his mind, what he was writing about, the lives he was creating, the characters he was giving to us because I think he was constantly expanding our humanity, speaking out against oppression and bigotry.”
He categorized both Spider Woman and Ragtime as “calls to action” due to their political messaging. “Ragtime is so extraordinarily beautiful. It’s about the promise of America and the ways in which it’s being broken right in front of us. It’s galvanizing, when Joshua Henry sings ‘Make Them Hear You’ the audiences are jumping to their feet. As our democratic institutions are being eroded, this musical is more important than ever, and the human stories that are told are incredible.”
Kirdahy wishes McNally could see the legacy he left behind. “I wish that Terrence had written a memoir, or had sat with someone to write a biography, but he was always thinking about tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,” the producer says. “He was always looking ahead.” He recalls a moment during the rehearsal process for Ragtime , when they were doing a run-through of the show. At the end of the first act, the company sings the stirring finale song, “Til We Reach That Day.” Kirdahy said that it went so well and he was so emotional that, out of habit, he went to text McNally to say, “Oh my god, honey, I’m so excited for you to see this.” He hadn’t done this in two years, but the power that was in the room was so palpable that he wanted to tell his husband how great the production was coming along.
While he couldn’t text his husband, he knew that what he could do was keep his partner’s legacy alive. “Not everybody has those opportunities to honor their loved ones, but I have these beautiful works that I get to put into the world.”
Kiss of the Spider Woman is now in theaters. And Ragtime is playing at Lincoln Center.
This article originally appeared on Out: ‘Kiss of the Spider Woman’ calls on LGBTQ+ people to ‘fight with every fiber of our beings’
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