Harvey Fierstein

At 69 years old, Harvey Fierstein has this physical status:

Harvey Forbes Fierstein ( FIRE-steen; born June 6, 1954) is an American actor, playwright, and voice actor.

Fierstein has won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his own play Torch Song Trilogy (about a gay drag-performer and his quest for true love and family) and the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for playing Edna Turnblad in Hairspray.

He also wrote the book for the musical La Cage aux Folles, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical, and wrote the book for the Tony Award-winning Kinky Boots.

He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2007.

Early life and education

Fierstein was born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Jacqueline Harriet (née Gilbert), a school librarian, and Irving Fierstein, a handkerchief manufacturer. He was raised Jewish, but later rejected the faith and became an atheist.

Fierstein attended High School of Art and Design and received a BFA from the Pratt Institute in 1973. He began working in the theater as a founding member of The Gallery Players of Park Slope before being cast in Andy Warhol's only play, Pork.

Fierstein's distinctive gravelly voice is a result of an overdeveloped vestibular fold in his vocal cords, essentially giving him a "double voice" when he speaks. Prior to puberty, Fierstein was a soprano in a professional boys' choir.

Personal life

Speaking with People magazine in 2022 to promote his memoir I Was Better Last Night, Fierstein stated, "I'm still confused as to whether I'm a man or a woman," and that as a child he often wondered if he'd been born in the wrong body. "When I was a kid, I was attracted to men. I didn't feel like a boy was supposed to feel. Then I found out about gay. So that was enough for me for then." The interview also noted his ease at playing both Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof and Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. On the LGBTQ&A podcast, Fierstein said, "I'm comfortable being me and if I ask myself, 'Would you want to transition?' The answer's no." He avoided identifying as non-binary in the interview, saying he had thought about it a lot and "it's the term that bothers me", but concluded that "I don't think I've missed anything by not making up my mind".

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Career

Fierstein is best known for his script and film Torch Song Trilogy, in which he wrote and appeared both off-Broadway (with a young Matthew Broderick) and on Broadway (with Estelle Getty and Fisher Stevens). The 1982 Broadway play and Best Actor in a Play were both Tony Awards, as well as the Theatre World Award for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Actor in a Play. He received a Best Male Lead award nomination for his film version, which was based on the Independent Spirit Award.

Fierstein wrote the book La Cage aux Folles (1983), which received another Tony Award, this time for Best Book of a Musical, as well as a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Book. Legs Diamond, Peter Allen's 1988 collaboration, was a critical and commercial failure, closing after 72 previews and 64 performances, but Peter Allen's biographical musical, The Boy From Oz, continues to perform.

Fierstein wrote the book for A Catered Affair, which also starred. The show opened on Broadway on April 17, 2008, following tryouts at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre in September 2007. It received 12 Drama Desk Award nominations and was a winner of the Drama League Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical.

Fierstein, Richard Mellon, accompanied Alan Menken (music) and Jack Feldman (lyrics), wrote the book for the stage musical Newsies. In March 2012, the musical premiere on Broadway opened on Broadway. Fierstein had been nominated for the Tony Award for Book of a Musical.

Fierstein wrote the book for a stage musical adaptation of the film Kinky Boots, with music and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper. It opened at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in Chicago in April 2013 after a fall 2012 performance at the Bank of America Theatre in Chicago. The musical was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards in 2013 and took home six, including best musical.

The Samuel J. Friedman Theatre Company at the Manhattan Theatre Club produced Casa Valentina by Fierstein on Broadway. In April 2014, the play was first performed in the United Kingdom. Joe Mantello directed it, with Patrick Page, John Cullum, and Mare Winningham as the lead.

Fierstein and his Kinky Boots colleague Cyndi Lauper were honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in April 2016.

Fierstein produced and appeared in Bella Bella, a one-person drama about New York congresswoman Bella Abzug, which took place in 2019. The premiere of Stage One at the Manhattan Theatre Club in City Center opened at a Theatre Club in Manhattan.

Safe Sex, Spookhouse, and Forget Him are among his other playwriting credits.

Fierstein produced the teleplay for The Wiz Live!'s December 3, 2015 NBC TV broadcast starring Stephanie Mills as Aunt Em, Queen Latifah, and David Alan Grier as the Lion. The teleplay is a recreation of The Wiz Broadway play, which ran from October 1974 to January 1979.

Fierstein also penned the script for, and appeared in, the 2016 NBC television show Hairspray Live! Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, Kristin Chenoweth, and Martin Short are among Ariana Grande, Jennifer Hudson, Jennifer Hudson, Jennifer Hudson, and Martin Short.

Fierstein, one of the country's first openly gay celebrities, transformed gay and lesbian life into relevant contemporary drama "with no regrets and no climactic suicides."

Fierstein has written op-eds for The New York Times, HuffPost, and PBS in addition to his dramatic output. My Last Night: In 2022, A Memoir was published in 2022 and quickly became a New York Times Bestseller.

Fierstein made his acting debut at La MaMa, E.T.C. Pork is Andy Warhol's only play. Fierstein continued to perform at La MaMa and other locations, but he also aspired to be a painter, so he enrolled at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. In 1973, he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) from Pratt. Fierstein appeared in The Haunted Host by Robert Patrick in Boston in 1975, then at La MaMa, and then off-Broadway in 1991. Fierstein's Broadway appearances include portraying Edna Turnblad's mother, who received the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor in a Musical, in addition to Torch Song Trilogy, La Cage aux Folles, and A Catered Affair. In the 2004 revival of Fiddler on the Roof, he later portrayed Alfred Molina as Tevye.

Fierstein's film roles include Woody Allen's Bullets over Broadway and Merv Green in Smoochy, in addition to roles in Garbo Talks, Duplex, Kull the Conqueror, and Independence Day, in addition to his lead roles in Matthew Broderick and Anne Bancroft's film adaptation of Torch Song Trilogy co-starring Matthew Broderick and Anne Bancroft. He narrated the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, for which he was honoured with a News & Documentary Emmy Award. He also appeared in Disney's animated film Mulan's role as Yao, a role he reprised for the video game Kingdom Hearts II and the direct-to-DVD sequel Mulan II.

Harvey Fierstein appeared in Mrs. Doubtfire in 1993 with Mara Wilson, Lisa Jakub, Matthew Lawrence, Sally Field, and Robin Williams.

Fierstein was lauded on television for his 1990 appearance in "The Simpsons" as the voice of Karl, Homer Simpson's assistant, and Elmer's voice in the 1999 HBO special based on his children's book The Sissy Duckling, which was awarded the Humanitas Prize for Children's Animation. When Fierstein appeared as fashion designer Dennis Sinclair in the short-lived CBS series Daddy's Girls in 1994, he became the first openly gay actor in a television series. Vice; Murder, She Wrote; the Showtime television film Common Ground (which he also wrote); and Cheers, which earned him an Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. On May 31, 2006, he sang a tribute to Katie Couric on "Today," her last day as anchor. In December 2006, Heat Miser appeared in the live-action remake of The Year Without a Santa Claus. An episode of Family Guy and a second-season episode of the comedy Nurse Jackie are among the new television appearances. When Lily's throat appears on the episode "Last Cigarette Ever" of How I Met Your Mother, she has a sore throat as a result of smoking.

Fierstein revived his role as Tevye, replacing an injured Chaim Topol in Fiddler on the Roof, beginning in December 2009. Douglas Hodge was sent by Bernin/Zaza in the Broadway revival of La Cage aux Folles opposite Jeffrey Tambor as Georges, but Tambor pulled out just days later, prompting "complications from a recent hip surgery," according to Christopher Sieber. After appearing 433 times and 15 previews, the show came to a conclusion on May 1, 2011.

Fierstein penned and appeared in Bella Bella, a solo monologue about Bella Abzug. On October 1, 2019, directed by Kimberly Senior, the performance opened off-Broadway at the Manhattan Theatre Club's City Center Stage 1.

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