Before Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song returns to Broadway (beginning October 9), Penguin Random House will release a new edition of the Tony Award winner's script(s).
The September 25 paperback release from Ballantine will feature both the original editions of Fierstein's three one-acts as first presented in the 1970s: International Stud, Fugue in a Nursery, and Widows and Children First—which ultimately comprised Torch Song Trilogy—as well as the Broadway-bound version that condenses the three into Torch Song.
The print edition will also include a new introduction by Fierstein, as well as photographs from the original production and the current Moisés Kaufman-helmed staging, which premiered Off-Broadway last year through Second Stage Theater.
This fall, the revival heads to Broadway's Hayes Theater, where Torch Song Trilogy first played the Great White Way from 1982 to 1985 (the venue was then known as the Little Theatre). Leading the company will be Michael Urie as Arnold Beckoff (first played by Fierstein himself) and Mercedes Ruehl as Ma.
"I haven't changed it so much as I've edited it, because I'm not the person I was 40 years ago when I wrote it," Fierstein recently told Playbill when discussing revisiting his queer-themed, semi-autobiographical work. "I wouldn't dare rewrite my younger self. But I can, through editing, shape it the way one shapes a performance or anything else, and I can make it relevant to the audience that's seeing it now."Torch Song will officially open November 1; performances are scheduled through February 24, 2019.