Second Stage Theater will honor Tony Award winner Harvey Fierstein at its November 12 gala with a celebration featuring cast members and collaborators from his theatrical career, including Cyndi Lauper, Billy Porter, Rosie O’Donnell, Annaleigh Ashford, Keala Settle, Wayne Brady, Christopher Sieber, Michael Urie, Marissa Jaret Winokur, and the original Hairspray Dynamites.
Following an extended Off-Broadway run at Second Stage last season, Fierstein’s landmark work Torch Song Trilogy returns to Broadway this fall (now titled Torch Song) for the first time since winning dual Tony Awards for Best Play and Best Actor (Fierstein) in 1982.
The cast of the Torch Song revival are also set to take part in the tribute, including Urie, Mercedes Ruehl, Ward Horton, Jack DiFalco, Roxanna Hope Radja, and Michael Hsu Rosen.
The celebration will be directed by Fierstein’s Tony Award-winning Hairspray collaborator Jerry Mitchell, and written by Tony nominee Chad Beguelin.
The event is co-chaired by Robert Greenblatt, Richie Jackson, and Jordan Roth with Honorary Chairs Cyndi Lauper and Joe Mantello.
Fierstein won both the 1983 Tony Award for Best Play and Best Actor in a Play for Torch Song Trilogy The seminal play, a portrait of modern gay life and the pursuit of family, led Fierstein to his next project—the long-running hit La Cage aux Folles. Fierstein won the 1984 Tony for Best Book of a Musical for La Cage aux Folles, and later took the 2003 Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical for playing Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. He’s also been nominated as librettist of Newsies and Kinky Boots, and as playwright of Casa Valentina. In 2017, he starred in the Off-Broadway premiere of Martin Sherman's Gently Down the Stream at the Public Theater.
The benefit begins at 6:30 PM with cocktails and dinner to be followed by an 8:30 PM performance. Tickets, priced $1,500–$5,000, can be purchased at 2ST.com.
Gabriel Ebert and Harvey Fierstein in Gently Down the Stream
