Mike McAlary was a tabloid reporter who gained recognition of his coverage of the police beat throughout the 80s and most of the 90s,
The Hufftington Post reports.
In 1998, McAlary won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage on the police brutalization of
Abner Louima. He also died that same year at age 41 of colon cancer.
In August, 1997, NYPD officers used a stick to sodomize Louima, a Haitian immigrant, in a Brooklyn station house bathroom. He was left with a punctured bladder, tears to his lower intestine, and smashed teeth. One of the 4 officers involved in Louima's torture was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
McAlary called it a "story to stop the city."
McAlary wasn't always perfect with his reporting, however, and Nora Ephron's play will address that too. According to The
NY Post, "Lucky Guy" will also look at a $12 million libel suit filed by a woman who McAlary claimed lied about a rape to promote a feminist rally.
The woman, a lesbian, said she was raped in Park Slope, Brooklyn. McAlary wrote that the police did not believe the woman's story in a column titled "Rape hoax; the real crime."
"Lucky Guy" isn't the first theatrical production based on the Pulitzer winning journalist,
The NY Daily News reports.
2011's "The Wood," was an off-broadway show by Dan Klores about McAlary. The show received mixed reviews.
Additional casting for "Lucky Guy" has not yet been revealed, but
The NY Daily News reports that Tony Award Winning Director George C. Wolfe will direct the play. Wolfe has also directed "Angels In America and " Bring in 'da noise, Bring in da funk."
