How exciting! I often prefer the perspective of a biographer, but Harvey is someone who should be able to tell his life story candidly and fairly –– and hilariously.
Good press for Funny Girl, too, if he's on the promo circuit.
From the publisher:
I Was Better Last Night bares the inner life of this eccentric nonconforming child from his roots in 1952 Brooklyn, to the experimental worlds of Andy Warhol and the Theatre of the Ridiculous, to the gay rights movements of the seventies and the tumultuous AIDS crisis of the eighties, through decades of addiction, despair, and ultimate triumph.
Mr. Fierstein’s candid recollections provide a rich window into downtown New York City life, gay culture, and the evolution of theater (of which he has been a defining figure), as well as a moving account of his family’s journey of acceptance.
"I'm still confused as to whether I'm a man or a woman," Fierstein says, turning serious. He says as a child he often wondered if he'd been born in the wrong body. "I don't have answers for anybody else 'cause I don't have answers for myself. 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."
After a career which has been defined by his turns on Broadway (he has six Tony awards, for both playwriting and performing) and in films such as Mrs. Doubtfire, it is his ease at performing as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof ("No one has ever been happier walking around with a beard and five daughters and having everyone call me papa" or Edna in Hairspray. "I don't know who I am. You wanna tell me who I am?" (Fierstein says he thinks about whether he is non-binary a lot "and it's the term that bothers me." "But let's put it this way," he says with a smile, "I don't think I've missed anything by not making up my mind."
I ordered a signed edition from Barnes and Noble. I think it will be nice to have a book signed by a Tony winning groundbreaking LGBT theatre legend. I think Books A Million has some too. Also, Barnes and Noble does not sell or allow books to be autopenned, so they are all authentic signatures.
"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal
"I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello
I just hope he talks about "Harvey's famous shower parties", which inspired a section of Antony Sher's autobiography and a scene in Martin Sherman's A Madhouse in Goa.
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
We are hosting an in-person event with him just north of Rhinebeck on 3/11 if anyone wants to make the trip! Ticket includes a signed book. Can’t wait.