Bill C. Davis, whose play ‘Mass Appeal’ lived up to its title, dies at 69
Bill C. Davis, a playwright whose Broadway debut - “Mass Appeal,” a twohander about a middle-aged Catholic priest and a rebellious young seminarian lived up to its title, earning two Tony nominations and becoming a staple of community theater, died Feb. 26 at a care center in Torrington, Conn. He was 69.
The cause was complications from covid-19, said his sister, Patricia Marks. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last month, shortly after being hospitalized with the coronavirus.
Davis wrote more than a dozen plays, directing and acting in some of them himself. But he remained best known for his first major work, “Mass Appeal,” which he wrote in his mid-20s while working at a residential community for adults with developmental disabilities in Rhinebeck, N.Y., where he said he “began to understand human nature.”
By turns wry, poignant and theologically mischievous, the play examined the conflict between Father Tim Farley - a Mercedes-driving, Burgundy-drinking priest beloved by his congregation - and Mark Dolson, a seminarian who argues that his mentor should address social issues in his sermons, such as whether women or celibate gay men should be priests.
Davis had graduated from Catholic schools and had a conflicted relationship with the church, later recalling that he would cry at night as a young boy, wondering whether some of his relatives were destined for hell because they had abandoned the faith. He was only 28 when “Mass Appeal” opened off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club in 1980, to rave reviews from critics including Frank Rich of the New York Times.
“There are few more invigorating theatrical experiences than hearing the voice of a gifted writer for the first time . . . . Mr. Davis is a natural,” Rich wrote in his opening lines. “He writes with wit, passion and a sure sense of stagecraft . . . . Thanks to Mr. Davis’s affectionate vision and keen ear for language, humor constantly bubbles to the surface of what is essentially a sorrowful work about two lost souls.”
In one scene, Farley encourages his idealistic pupil to view the collection plate as the church’s “Nielsen ratings.” In another, he offers advice on how to comfort parishioners with “harmless lies,” explaining: “Your responsibility as a priest is to bring common grief to the heights of the inconsolable by saying something inane.”
The play moved to Broadway in 1981, starring Irish actor Milo O’Shea as Farley and Michael O’Keefe as Dolson. Running for 212 performances, it earned Tony nominations for O’Shea and the director, stage and screen actress Geraldine Fitzgerald. Davis received a Drama Desk Award nomination for outstanding new play and wrote the screenplay for a 1984 film adaptation, starring Jack Lemmon and Zeljko Ivanek.
Although “Mass Appeal” poked fun at Catholic orthodoxy, the play was not a savage critique of the church in the mold of Christopher Durang’s “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You,” an off-Broadway hit at the time. Its themes extended beyond religion to generational strife and the nature of love and friendship - although Davis later said he had another, more personal subject in mind as well.