Harvey Fierstein

He is homosexual and had relationships with Bruce Bibby and Joe Grabarz.

He is an outspoken gay rights activist who also writes about gay issues.

Harvey Fierstein was born as the younger of two sons of Jacqueline Harriet, a librarian, and Irving Fierstein, a handkerchief manufacturer.

He took creative writing classes in high school and performed in drag. He also performed in drag at various small clubs as characters named ‘Virginia’, ‘Kitty’ and ‘Bertha’.

He got his first breakthrough when he was offered the role of an asthmatic lesbian in one of Andy Warhol’s few theatrical productions, ‘Pork’, in 1971. The play made its debut at New York’s La Mama Experimental Theater Club.

He soon began to write his own plays and his first production, ‘International Stud’ was performed at La Mama in 1972. The play told the story of a drag queen and was well liked by the gay community.

He decided to continue his education and enrolled at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn from where he earned his bachelor of fine arts in 1973. He taught for a brief period before returning to writing and acting.

Throughout the 1970s, he wrote, reworked and improvised his plays and performed in many of them. He wrote two plays, ‘Fugue in a Nursery’ and ‘Widows and Children First!’ which he would later combine to form a collection of plays.

In 1982, he combined three of his plays, ‘International Stud’, ‘Fugue in a Nursery’ and ‘Widows and Children First!’ to form the ‘Torch Song Trilogy’, which focused on a torch song singing drag queen, Arnold Beckoff. The play became immensely popular.

His best known work is the play ‘Torch Song Trilogy’ (1982) which he wrote and starred in. It revolved around the story of Arnold, a gay drag queen and his quest for love and family. The play is semi-autobiographical in nature as it reflected the dreams and struggles of Fierstein himself.

He wrote the award winning book for the musical ‘La Cage aux Folles’ which was originally produced by the Broadway in 1983 and revived in 2004 and 2010. The play focused on a gay couple and the funny incidents that follow when they receive conservative guests.

He acted as an over-weight woman in the 2002 musical ‘Hairspray’, immediately becoming popular with the audience. The play was basically a commentary on the social injustices prevalent in America during the 1960’s.