(Received as a birthday present) Harvey Fierstein's entertaining memoir covers his amazing career with humor and insight. From community theater in Brooklyn to drag avant-garde at LaMama and with Andy Warhol to his Tony-winning breakthrough in Torch Song Trilogy to becoming Broadway's go-to book author for musicals like La Cage Aux Folles, Kinky Boots, Newsies, and A Catered Affair, Fierstein's career trajectory has been unique. No one else has succeeded as an actor, writer and gay trailblazer, on such a scale. What's really shocking is reading how being gay was so totally anathema to the majority of American society when Harvey was starting out. I remember when Torch Song was on Broadway, they didn't even mention that it was about a gay drag queen in the commercial. (Happy audience members gushed how it was about love.) That play took the revolutionary stance that gay people wanted the same thing as straight people--love, marriage, children, etc.--not endless booze, sex and partying. In addition to backstage tales of his many credits as playwright and star, Fierstein delivers the goods on his personal life, detailing how his sexuality has affected his relationships with his parents (difficult) and brother (supportive), as well his struggles with alcoholism and many medical procedures.
Side note: As in Mary Rodgers and Barbra Streisand's book, Arthur Laurents does not come off well.
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