SOURCE: "Love! Hits Broadway Running Like a Broadway Hit," in The New York Times, February 15, 1995, pp. C9, C12.

[Canby is a highly acclaimed theater critic for The New York Times. In the following favorable review, he applauds the structure, plot, and characters of Love! Valour! Compassion!]

The Manhattan Theater Club's production of Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion! was enthusiastically received when it opened Off Broadway in November. At that time even its admirers, including me, could not have dreamed that this proudly gay play stood a chance of becoming a mainstream hit.

That seems a distinct possibility now that Love! Valour! Compassion! has transferred, virtually intact (one cast change), to the Walter Kerr Theater, where it opened last night.

By coincidence, this is the same theater that housed Angels in America, Tony Kushner's award-winning "gay fantasia on national themes." Though both deal with gay characters and concerns, they're...