Torch Song Trilogy had its birth in 1978, when Ellen Stewart produced a new play by Fierstein called The International Stud International Stud, The (Fierstein) at La Mama, her Off-Off-Broadway theater. He wanted to approach homosexuality in the theater in a brand-new way: He wanted to present homosexuals as human beings. Fierstein longed to try something different he wanted to write down his own life experiences, which he believed would strike a universal chord. Gay plays often also seemed to have a soft-porn aspect to them. Prior to Fierstein’s work, realistic depictions of homosexuality onstage had been relegated to Off-Off-Broadway and drew only small audiences mainstream portrayals of gays in the theater were typified by the abysmal stereotypes of the 1968 play The Boys in the Band. Torch Song Trilogy (Fierstein) Theater drama Homosexuality theatrical depictions Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy Meets with Unexpected Success (June 10, 1982) Torch Song Trilogy Meets with Unexpected Success, Fierstein’s (June 10, 1982) Torch Song Trilogy (Fierstein) Theater drama Homosexuality theatrical depictions North America June 10, 1982: Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy Meets with Unexpected Success United States June 10, 1982: Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy Meets with Unexpected Success Theater June 10, 1982: Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy Meets with Unexpected Success Fierstein, Harvey Glines, John Getty, Estelle Miller, Courtįierstein strove to express himself honestly in the theater, and that included facing his sexuality head-on. After graduating in 1973 from Brooklyn’s Pratt Institute, where he studied painting, Fierstein turned to playwriting and acting.

He had a voice like that of Tallulah Bankhead and wore costumes that rivaled Carmen Miranda’s.

At the age of sixteen, he started working as a drag queen in various East Village clubs. At age thirteen, he told his parents that he was gay, but neither the revelation nor the reaction was particularly traumatic. He had grown up in a lower-middle-class area of Brooklyn, the son of a handkerchief maker. The playwright and lead actor, Harvey Fierstein, seemed to have begun his young life with a list of societal negatives he was fat, he was Jewish, he was asthmatic, and, finally, he was gay. In 1982, after four years of playing in Off- and Off-Off-Broadway houses, Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy stepped onto the Broadway stage amid thunderous applause and with two Tony Awards waiting in the wings.

Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy, a candid play about gay life, family mores, promiscuity, and commitment in the 1970’s, received unexpected rave reviews and started a new trend in gay theater as well as in theater in general.

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