Longtime friends Harvey Fierstein and Matthew Broderick have opened up about one of their favorite adventures together: the time Fierstein took Broderick to his “very first” gay bar.
The pair met while performing Fierstein’s play Torch Song Trilogy together in 1982. One night after a performance, Fierstein suggested the two go for a drink together at a bar called Boots & Saddles. Fierstein, however, always referred to it as “Bras & Girdles.” In an interview with Andy Cohen, the pair recounted the fateful evening, and how it further cemented their friendship.
“We went in, we were there,” Fierstein remembers, “and I’m watching the eyes getting hotter and hotter on [Broderick]. The mother in me came out and I said ‘Ok, we’ve seen this now.’ I got him out of there rather quickly.”
Related: Harvey Fierstein is back, and a queer renaissance is making Broadway fabulous again
“I never took him to the Trucks though,” Fierstein then added, referring to the city’s meatpacking district where men would have sex in their cars.
Cohen then acknowledged that Fierstein had survived the AIDS crisis without ever getting infected with HIV.
“It is amazing that you lived to tell,” Cohen observed.
“It is,” Fierstein admitted. “It’s all because in that period, that exact period, I was in a backroom bar…doing whatever one does in a backroom bar…and I all of the sudden said I don’t care. I thought of a line from Colette, where she said ‘Where he and he and he become them, I gave up men.’ I said ‘I’m that bored,’ and I just dropped the d*cks and left.”
We’re glad Harvey did, though we also hope he’s since made up for the lost time.
Torch Song Trilogy remains a classic of queer drama, and helped launch Fierstein’s career as a writer. He’s since gone on to pen the scripts for the musicals La Cage Aux Folles, Kinky Boots, Newsies, and more.
Have a look at the clip. Harvey & Matthew are still so cute together…
Update: This article originally identified “The Trucks” as a darkroom within the bar. It has been updated to clarify that Fierstein referred to the New York meatpacking district. Sorry folks, but we’ve never been to the trucks either.
BennyTheHill
I thought both were great in “Torch Song Trilogy.”
However, Harvey better lay off the gravy and 3rd helpings, and Matt needs to hit the gym.
Mr. Stadnick
Let’s see your perfect body! No not going to happen? then shut the f up
white-queer-african
A troll will post any drivel to get a reaction from normal level thinking folks. It is the only amusement they have. Sexually frustrated. Lonely with no friends. Shun by society. Low self-esteem. Poor apperance and of low intelligence. Google search their bible.
JRamonMc
Broderick at 60 and Fierstein at 69 have nothing to apologize for when it comes to being happy with their lives. Most guys just have no concept of how the body changes once you hit 50. I’m not saying they’re not some drop dead gorgeous men with 6 pack abs, but the truth of the matter is declining testosterone wrecs havoc on a body with each new decade. Believing that physical beauty lasts forever will hit home every time you look in the mirror with each decade. Witch doctors selling hormone replacement therapy fail to tell you about the increase risk of heart attacks, stroke and worse of all cancer of all kinds to cash in on aging vulnerability. My biggest advice as a man approaching his 7th decade is acceptance. Stay as fit as you can, respect your body, and love yourself as no one else can do for you.
barryaksarben
lol this from the troll who REEKS of internalized homophobia. Lets see a current pic of your body or you face or your soul all less then pretty Im sure
barryaksarben
Incel? Benny?
CityguyUSA
They’re not young. Matt is 60 and Harvey is 70.
white-queer-african
Harvey Fierstein gay icon. A trailblazer of note. And the still very gorgeous Matthew Broderick. Pity they were on Andy Cohen’s show. Not a favorite of mine. But I will give him credit for having my favourites on his show. Not withstanding the HIV question being somehow a spoiler?
monty clift
Harvey’s such a good spirit. He can put a smile on anyone’s face. ^^
QJ201
I knew that place as Bras & Girdles when I was a teenager and we’d go drinking on Christopher St because we were young and cute and didn’t get carded. lol.
Mister P
Did Matthew’s mother know he went to a “fag” bar?
Joshooeerr
I dare say Harvey is the only guy ever to find himself quoting Collette in a back room.
The real Bruce
I don’t know, Joshooeerr. I remember quoting Dickens sometimes after a night at the baths, “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.” Mostly best, as I recall. LOL!
mrswallow62
Matthew was so hot looking in that movie.
Man About Town
Yo Dave: People didn’t go to the Trucks to have sex in cars, they went there to have sex in the backs of the Trucks; that was the whole point!
PascackJack
That’s why we are called fruits. Gay men always hung around the produce trucks on West Street in the off hours to hook up inside of them. A guy I knew was murdered there.