Harvey Fierstein was born in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York City, the son of Jacqueline Harriet (née Gilbert), a school librarian, and Irving Fierstein, a handkerchief manufacturer.[6] Fierstein has a brother, Ronald Fierstein.[7] The family belonged to a Conservative Jewish temple.[8] Prior to puberty, Fierstein was a soprano in a professional boys' choir.[9]
As one of the first gay celebrities in the United States, Fierstein helped turn gay and lesbian life into a viable subject for contemporary drama "with no apologies and no climactic suicides".[13]
Fierstein has authored op-eds for The New York Times[14][15][16] and the PBS series In the Life.[17]
1970s
Fierstein began working in the theater as a founding member of The Gallery Players of Park Slope before being cast in Andy Warhol's only play, Pork.[18] Fierstein's other early roles included "a transvestite in his own Flatbush Tosca...a 300-year-old woman, Lillian Russell, and 26 other parts in Ronald Tavel's My Fetus Lived on Amboy Street". Fierstein also performed his own drag routine in Greenwich Village, including an impersonation of Ethel Merman singing "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun".[19]
Fierstein also wrote the book for La Cage aux Folles (1983), winning another Tony Award, this time for Best Book of a Musical, and a Drama Desk nomination for Outstanding Book.[25] During his Tony Award acceptance speech, Fierstein acknowledged his male lover; according to Entertainment Weekly, this was "not a first", but was "still startling to many viewers".[26]
Fierstein narrated the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk (1984), for which he won a News & Documentary Emmy Award. His playwriting credits include Spookhouse (1984), Safe Sex (1987), and Forget Him (1988).[27]Legs Diamond, his 1988 collaboration with Peter Allen, was a critical and commercial failure, closing after 72 previews and 64 performances, but the songs live on in Peter Allen's biographical musical, The Boy from Oz.
In 1994, Fierstein became the first gay actor to play a principal gay character in a television series when he appeared as fashion designer Dennis Sinclair in the short-lived CBS series Daddy's Girls.[26]
Fierstein voiced the role of Yao in Disney's animated feature Mulan, a role he later reprised for the video game Kingdom Hearts II and the direct-to-DVD sequel Mulan II.
Fierstein voiced the character of Elmer in the 1999 HBO special based on his children's book The Sissy Duckling, which won the Humanitas Prize for Children's Animation.
In 2007, Fierstein wrote the book to the musical A Catered Affair; he also starred in the production. After tryouts at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre in September 2007, the show opened on Broadway April 17, 2008. It received 12 Drama Desk Award nominations and won the Drama League Award for Distinguished Production of a Musical.[31]
Fierstein returned to the theater when he reprised the role of Tevye, replacing an injured Chaim Topol, in the national tour of Fiddler on the Roof starting in December 2009.[32]
2010s
On February 15, 2011, Fierstein replaced Douglas Hodge as Albin/Zaza in the Broadway revival of La Cage aux Folles.[33] The show closed on May 1, 2011, after playing 433 performances and 15 previews.[34]
Fierstein wrote the book for the stage musical Newsies, along with Alan Menken (music) and Jack Feldman (lyrics). The musical opened on Broadway in March 2012. Fierstein was nominated for the Tony Award for Book of a Musical.[35]
Fierstein wrote the teleplay for the December 3, 2015, NBC TV broadcast of The Wiz Live!, featuring Stephanie Mills as Aunt Em, Queen Latifah as The Wiz, and David Alan Grier as the Lion. The teleplay is an adaptation of The Wiz, which ran on Broadway from October 1974 until January 1979.[40]
In April 2016, Fierstein, along with his Kinky Boots collaborator Cyndi Lauper, was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[42]
Fierstein wrote and starred in Bella Bella, a solo monologue play about New York Congresswoman Bella Abzug. It premiered at Manhattan Theatre Club's Stage One at City Center on October 1, 2019, directed by Kimberly Senior.[43]
2020s
Fierstein's book I Was Better Last Night: A Memoir was released on March 1, 2022, and quickly became a New York Times Bestseller.
Fierstein is Jewish.[8] In 2005, he said that although he does not believe in God, he prays three or four times each day.[46]
Fierstein's distinctive gravelly voice is a result of an overdeveloped vestibular fold in his vocal cords, essentially giving him a "double voice" when he speaks.[9]
Fierstein has struggled with alcohol abuse. In a 2022 interview, he stated that he stopped drinking alcohol following a 1996 suicide attempt.[21]
Speaking with People magazine in February 2022 to promote his memoir I Was Better Last Night, Fierstein stated, "I'm still confused as to whether I'm a man or a woman," and that as a child he often wondered if he'd been born in the wrong body. "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." The interview also noted his ease at playing both Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof and Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. He avoided identifying as non-binary in the interview, saying he had thought about it a lot and "it's the term that bothers me", but concluded that "I don't think I've missed anything by not making up my mind".[47] On the LGBTQ&A podcast the following month, Fierstein said, "I'm comfortable being me and if I ask myself, 'Would you want to transition?' The answer's no."[48][49]
^ abcde"Harvey Fierstein (visual voices guide)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved October 6, 2023. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its credits or other reliable sources of information.
