TOMMCCORMACKPLAYS.COM

An introduction by George Weinberg

If I had to catch your attention with one try, it'd be this:

Of the hundreds of new Off Broadway plays in the now-completed first decade of the new century, Tom McCormack's ENDPAPERS with its over 40,000+ viewers was among the three or four most popular -- and it was a first play.

If you go to the "REVIEWER REACTIONS TO ENDPAPERS" folder on your left, you'll see:

NYTHEATRE.COM - Martin Denton: "…There may not be a more involving or more satisfying drama in town right now."

THEATER WORLD RADIO/TV - Mike Schwartz: "…Finally, most certainly, you will be exposed to the wittiest, most talented playwriting available anywhere… true genius… unlikely to be duplicated in any contemporary drama now playing. Thomas McCormack does it all."

WOR - David F. Richardson: "…totally enthralling, first rate and believable... as close to real life as one can get. Really top notch Off Broadway entertainment."

NEW YORK MAGAZINE - John Simon: "…If all his work turns out as good as this, his first play, we can only wish McCormack long life and hold our breath."

THE NEW YORK OBSERVER - John Heilpern: "Thomas McCormack's first full-length play, 'Endpapers', recently opened to a number of sparkling reviews, and let's hope he agrees with them. His play rings true from the confident opening moments… Welcome to the theater, Mr. McCormack!"

The folder has comparable excerpts from the Post, Daily News, NY Times, Time Out, and more. ENDPAPERS is now published by The Dramatists Play Service.

The critics seemed to agree that McCormack could ultimately be among the most respected and successful American playwrights. So what has happened to him since ENDPAPERS? This:

He completed three new full-length scripts and some one-acts. His agent and his producer both died.

With their deaths, it was as though his phone lines to the theater world were cut.

Tom's genteel response was some months ago to place the new scripts on a website, attach play-descriptions that were as facts-only as a police blotter, and politely back out of the room. To compound his damaging diffidence, the site's Contact facility was installed incorrectly, Contact didn't contact, and countless messages were lost.

I objected to Tom, claiming his message-in-a-bottle promotion strategy badly under-serves a talent this strong and plays this worthy. I talked him into letting me revise the contents of the website. In the "About the Plays" folder on this site you will now find descriptions of only his farce, RAVISHING THE MUSE and a new one act, PROFILING, with a unique Rashomon-like promise. Both scripts are reprinted in their entirety.

During my brief term as Tom's advocate, I hope to see his work embraced by a producer, agent, director or actor who feels its potential. I'll try to appeal to two appetites.

The first is the legitimate entrepreneurial craving of producers and agents who want to be involved in theater but also want a robust and continuing return on their investment of time and money.

The second is the appetite of those who would exult in reading someone whose work is everything we hope for in theater: inventive, moving, funny, ultra-smart, filled with adroit high-carat lines uttered by vivid, original, unforgettable characters, and reflecting profound and novel themes. It's also quintessentially theatrical in a way that shows why, though film, tv, and the web thrive, live theater will always be with us.

Begin with RAVISHING THE MUSE. It's the best farce since NOISES OFF, and a work of ingenious and unflagging comic invention.

P.S. To heighten the focus on RTM and PROFILING, two other full-length scripts formerly on the site have been temporarily removed. PROBLEM PLAY and INCOMPLETENESS THEOREM are available from Office@tommccormackplays.com. Tom is in fact revising INCOMPLETENESS THEOREM as I write. I am unperturbed. I'm told Frayn revises NOISES OFF every time it is remounted in England. McCormack and Frayn agree with Paul Valery who said: "A poem is never finished, only abandoned.")

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