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New York Times

11 hours ago

Harvey Fierstein has won four Tony Awards in his career, including honors for both writing and acting. On Sunday he added a fifth to the list, with an award for lifetime achievement.
Here's what to know about Fierstein's notable performances and writing — and unmistakable voice.
It all started with 'Torch Song Trilogy.'
'Torch Song Trilogy,' a four-hour portrait of a drag performer written by and starring Fierstein, opened on Broadway in 1982. It was a landmark production for a generation of gay men: 'A play in which the gay character was smart, funny and fully alive? A revelation,' Stuart Emmrich would write in The Times decades later.
Fierstein won two Tonys with the show, one for best play and one for his performance. 'Torch Song' was revived on Broadway in 2018, this time with Michael Urie in the lead role of Arnold. (A character sometimes known as, naturally, Virginia Ham.)
'Originally, the gay men came in disguise,' Fierstein said about the play's audience earlier this year, in an interview with New York magazine. 'When we did it again, they came to the theater owning the show.'
He's made a career confronting gender norms onstage.
After 'Torch Song' came 'La Cage aux Folles' in 1983, with a Tony-winning book by Fierstein and music by Jerry Herman. It was the first Broadway musical, The Times noted then, to put a gay relationship at the forefront — here, between a drag nightclub's impresario and its star. Fierstein has also written the books for 'Newsies' (2012) and 'Kinky Boots' (2013), and revised the book of 'Funny Girl' for its 2022 revival.
Fierstein's breakthrough as a musical performer came in 2002, with 'Hairspray.' He played the larger-than-life Edna Turnblad, a 1960s housewife whose peppy daughter helps her come fabulously into her own. Fierstein won a Tony for the role, and in 2016 reprised his performance in a live, televised rendition of the show.
'Edna is not just a cross-dressing sight gag,' Ben Brantley wrote in his 2002 review. 'She's every forgotten housewife, recreated in monumental proportions and waiting for something to tap her hidden magnificence.'
And about that voice.
Here are just a few of the ways The Times has characterized Fierstein's distinctive timbre over the years: 'throaty,' compared to a 'frog' or 'foghorn,' 'all the old 'gravel' clichés don't come close,' and 'sounding as he does, he should be driving a cab.'
In an interview around his 2022 memoir, 'I Was Better Last Night,' Fierstein had a simple explanation.
'My father had the same voice,' Fierstein said. 'It's enlarged secondary vocal cords. It's the most boring answer.'