‘Casa Valentina’ Theater Review: Harvey Fierstein Lifts the Skirts of Hetero Crossdressers
6 / 10
In the Playbill, Fierstein tells us not to call his characters 'drag queens' or 'female impersonators.' And that's not the end of his sermonizing...From 'La Cage aux Folles' to 'Kinky Boots,' Fierstein has created some very sympathetic hero-victims. With 'Casa Valentina,' those victims are looking more pathetic than sympathetic. He's the master of the long, bigoted diatribe that helps make the audience feel superior but leaves the poor character who's the object of all this verbal abuse simply battered and abused. There's much more nuance in Joe Mantello's direction of his actors, although even he doesn't succeed in softening Fierstein's sledgehammer when, late in the play, a transvestite's daughter (Lisa Emery) arrives to tell off the owners of the Catskills resort.
