At 70 years old, Harvey Fierstein is showing no signs of slowing down. Earlier this year, the Brooklyn native and four-time Tony Award winner released the memoir I Was Better Last Night, which quickly became a New York Times best-seller. This summer, his hit musical Kinky Boots (featuring music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper) returns to New York City, proving Fierstein still has soles with soul.
Fierstein’s book spans decades, tracing his personal and professional life from the Theatre of the Ridiculous and a role in Andy Warhol’s only play to the early years of the LGBTQ rights movement, the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, and triumphs on both stage and screen. His first Broadway appearance and writing credit, Torch Song Trilogy (recently streamlined into a two-act play and revived on Broadway starring Michael Urie), was a watershed moment for queer representation in the commercial theater.
It would be nearly two decades before Fierstein returned to the Broadway stage as Edna Turnblad in the musical adaptation of Hairspray, currently on tour starring Andrew Levitt (aka Nina West) in the role Fierstein created.
The relevancy and timelessness of Fierstein’s works fortify his staying power as one of the great theatrical storytellers of our generation. Kinky Boots, which won six Tony Awards including Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical for its original star Billy Porter, delivers a message of healing and community-building as relevant today as when the show opened in 2013.
“Beyond the laughs and applause, what I’ve missed most is seeing the audience shed tears of happiness at every performance,” said Fierstein. “Kinky Boots is more than a musical. It’s a life experience.”
Based on true events and the 2005 film of the same name, the musical follows the unexpected partnership between, Charlie, a factory owner struggling to keep the family business afloat, and Lola, a drag performer enlisted to reimagine the inventory.
“There is a new determination to Fierstein’s writing, peppered as always with pedagogy and comedic sugar,” wrote critic Chris Jones of the original Broadway production. “Kinky Boots is both an idealized escape and a kind of fascinating, even a calming, reflection of the massive social change occurring on both sides of the Atlantic.”
With the recent overturning of Roe v. Wade and anti-LGBTQ legislation moving its way through state legislatures, a story of hope is needed now more than ever.
Fierstein also makes an appearance in one of the most anticipated films of the fall: Bros. Billy Eichner’s gays-play-straight romcom.
“We do them much better than they do us,” Fierstein told GQ. “I was shocked the first time I learned there were heterosexuals in show business. I thought they just built the sets.”
Welcome to Queerty’s Pride50. We’re celebrating the members from our community who are responsible for some of the most inspiring and extraordinary moments for LGBTQ people over the last year. See all the honorees
Mario
Harvey has really let himself go.
Sad.
monty clift
He’s a 70 year old man, you a-hole.
dbmcvey
Hey Mario. Does it upset you that people love Harvey Fierstein for all he has done and you realize that all you’ve done is be a jerk? Well, you don’t have to be a jerk. Take all that unhappiness that causes you to try to tear others down and try to put it to use. Don’t just sit back and be a nasty queen. Get out and volunteer at a soup kitchen. Do something of value in your life before you cast off your dry, cracked, full of hate carcass. It’s not too late!
Steve9999
Cannot wait to see a photo of you at 70……hell, a photo of you at 25 would be HYSTERICAL.
The real Bruce
Says the poor dip-s**t who’s had to use so many different screen names, he doesn’t even know where his next thought(?) is coming from. NEXT!
Diplomat
Harvey’s a national treasure and now that I know he wrote a book I’m going to give it a read. Thanks for everything Harvey Feinstein. You’ve made life for many much easier to digest.
monty clift
Harvey just has a way of putting a smile on my face.
The real Bruce
You know Monty, Harvey is the Sugar Pun Fairy! Take him and LOVE him just the way he is.
The real Bruce
I saw Harvey interviewed last Sunday on Jonathan Capehart’s Sunday Show during New York Pride. He is just as funny, with a serious and thoughtful side, as he ever was. He is so genuine, you just have to love him.
MikeGinMN
Harvey is a national treasure… and a gay icon. I will never forget the first time I saw Torch Song Trilogy on stage… and then the movie… I still cry when I watch it.
There is a shrinking community of gay men and women who remember gay life as it was depicted in Torch Song Trilogy.
A time when AIDS was still sweeping through the community unrestrained. A time when there was no drug developed to slow it’s deadly outcome… no PrEP to protect those uninfected.
Just a lot fear… and a lot of sadness for all of those who had died.
A time of increased hate and violence too. HIV and AIDS motivated a lot of homophobia (I hate that word… it isn’t right.) that translated into a lot of attacks on gay men… especially in places like Greenwich Village. I was a young gay man and I still remember the ‘bashing’ attacks… I still remember the fear we all had walking on the street at night at that time. ‘Bashing” today is a verbal attack, a social media incident… back then you could be killed in a ‘bashing’. At some point someone started making painted chalk outlines of people, in locations where someone had been ‘bashed’. Chalk head propped up on a curb, chalk body in the street… dozens of them.
Many people are too young to remember those days, and for a while I was glad that so many young gay men and women didn’t have to endure all the suffering Harvey’s generation (and mine to a lesser extent) had to…. but now I question our complacency… and your blissful ignorance. There might still be hate and intolerance today… but it was nothing like it was back then.
Recent events within the Courts… and in popular opinion… might change all that.
If the current flow of regressive/repressive rulings… of institutionalized bigotry and intolerance continue… all of you carefree LGBTQ+ people might find yourselves fighting for your life too… yet again.
Watch Torch Song Trilogy… listen to Harvey’s words… feel the pain and the anguish.
Prepare yourselves, like the generations before you had to… because they are coming for you.
humble charlie
“i was better last night” is a great book. fierstein should be proud of all that he has accomplished.
those were hard times in the late seventies and eighties. there used to be a great weekly newspaper called “the new york native”. if only there was a way to access them (and “the village voice” for that matter). with them gone, a treasure trove of history has been lost. someone please, if they own these issues, release them on the internet.
Wheelerman
I recently finished his memoir. He has led quite a life…and it is not over. The memoir is a terrific read! I was fortunate to have seen Harvey in his original production of Torch Song Trilogy, and a few years ago; Michael Urie in the revival just before it transferred to Broadway. Michael, and his stage mother, Mercedes Ruehl, were kind enough to spend time with me & my buddy after the show. Nice people!