Terrence McNally’s Love! Valour! Compassion! remains one of the rare American plays that manages to be both unabashedly sentimental and rigorously honest. In Dezart Performs’ brilliant new production, its emotional architecture proves as sturdy as ever: a country house, a circle of longtime friends, and the slow unspooling of truths that only emerge when people feel safe enough to be fully seen.
At its core, the play is a meditation on chosen family—specifically, a group of gay men navigating love, aging, betrayal, and the looming specter of illness. What makes the piece endure is McNally’s refusal to flatten his characters into archetypes. They are messy, contradictory, and often painfully funny. This production leans into that complexity, allowing the humor to bubble up naturally rather than chasing punchlines.
The result is a world that feels lived-in rather than staged. Conversations overlap, silences stretch, and the audience is invited to witness, not judge, the fragile negotiations of affection and forgiveness.
The ensemble cast is the engine of this play, and here it runs beautifully.
Gregory (J. Stephen Brantley), Co-host and owner of the home, is an aging dancer/choreographer intent on topping his career with one more flash of brilliance, while fearing his best work may be behind him.
Buzz (Oscar Fabela) is a musical-theatre-obsessed romantic, is rendered with warmth rather than caricature; his joy is infectious, but his vulnerability is what lingers.
The identical twin brothers, John and James Jeckyll (Jamie Pierce), James is gentle and somehow making peace with his having AIDS. John is caustic and cold with a mean streak that he uses to hide his insecurities. Both are handled with a clarity that underscores McNally’s fascination with duality — how we can be both our best and worst selves in the same breath.
Bobby Brahms (Tim Fragos), Gregory’s much younger partner. is blind but possibly one of the clearest seeing members of the group. He is kind, open, and disarmingly sincere.
Ramon Fornos (Chris Carranza) is John’s boytoy companion. He is a dancer and constantly horny with an exhibitionistic streak a mile wide and with a captive audience most of whom are happy to watch.
Arthur Pape (Matt McConkey) is warm, domestic, and deeply committed to his partner, Perry. He is the group’s steadying force — the one who comforts and tries to keep the peace. His optimism is grounded, not naïve. Arthur represents the possibility of long-term love that is both imperfect and deeply sustaining.
Perry Sellars (Michael Shaw) is Arthur’s partner of 14 years. He is sharp-tongued, sarcastic, and often exasperated by the world around him. His humor is a shield, but beneath it lies genuine tenderness. Perry’s relationship with Arthur is one of the play’s emotional anchors — a portrait of a couple who have weathered life together and still choose each other.
Every member of the cast gives a performance that is honest and rings true. Moments of confession are not polished; they tremble. Moments of conflict are not explosive; they bruise. This is a truly sensational ensemble company.
Phillip Wm. McKinley’s superb direction wisely resists the temptation to modernize the play into something it isn’t. Instead, the production honors its 1990s setting while emphasizing its timeless emotional stakes. The pacing is deliberate, allowing the audience to feel the weight of 3 weekends that changes everyone present.
What makes Love! Valour! Compassion! resonate today is not nostalgia but its insistence on tenderness as a radical act. The play acknowledges pain—particularly the pain of a community shaped by loss—but refuses to let that pain eclipse joy. It is a work that believes in the restorative power of connection, even when that connection is imperfect.
In an era where cynicism often masquerades as sophistication, McNally’s sincerity feels almost rebellious. This production is one of the best I have seen in some time … don’t miss it!
Love! Valour! Compassion! runs through April 19, 2026 at Dezart Performs in Palm Springs. For tickets and further information visit their website at DezartPerforms.org
Photos: David A. Lee