Carrying the Torch: How TORCH SONG Set Broadway on Fire and Ushered In A New Era of LGBTQ Representation on the Great White Way

This season, Harvey Fierstein's seminal Broadway classic, Torch Song made its way back to Broadway 36 years after its original run, in a brand-new production.

Fiercely funny and heart-wrenching, Torch Song follows Arnold Beckoff's odyssey to find happiness in New York. All he wants is a husband, a child, and a pair of bunny slippers that fit, but a visit from his overbearing mother reminds him that he needs one thing more: respect. The play takes Arnold on this all too human journey about the families we're born into, the families we choose, and the battles to bring them all home.

Beginning its life as a trio of plays Torch Song Trilogy first premiered on Broadway at the Little Theatre - now The Hayes, where the 2019 revival also resides - in 1982 where it ran for three years. Penned by and starring Mr. Fierstein, the plays won Tony Awards for Best Play and Best Actor in a Play.

Written before the AIDS crisis, but after Stonewall and the declassification of homosexuality as a mental illness, Torch Song was the first play to deal explicitly with love, sex, fatherhood, identity, and acceptance within the gay community. Arnold, the play's protagonist, became one of the first gay characters to lead a successful Broadway play.

With its early excavation of gay life, the show gave audiences the opportunity to envision a world much like ours today, where the lives, trials, and joys of the LGBTQ+ community have gained mainstream acceptance.

Following Torch Song's landmark original Broadway run, depictions of gay life on stage were broadened across the board, including in-depth portrayals of the AIDS crisis, gender nonconformity, nontraditional families, gay politics, and more.

This wealth of representation stemming from Torch Song's impact not only broadened the scope of subject matters presented on stage, but helped to shape the next thirty years of gay art and representation throughout media at large.

While we celebrate the return of Harvey Fierstein's landmark drama, let's take a look at some of the other important works, before and after Torch Song, that have helped shepherd the LGBTQ experience to the stage.

The Normal Heart (1985)

The Normal Heart is Larry Kramer's powerful theatre piece about the public and private indifference to the AIDS plague and one man's fight to awaken the world to the crisis. The play follows Ned Weeks, a gay activist enraged at what is happening around him, as he tries to rally the community together and save the world from itself. The play follows a circle of determined friends as they watch an unknown disease stalk and shatter those they care for, ultimately making a difference in the fight through their strength and love for one another.

The Boys In The Band (1968)

Mart Crowley's groundbreaking 1968 play, The Boys in the Band, centers on a group of gay men who gather in a NYC apartment for a friend's birthday party. After the drinks are poured and the music turned up, the evening slowly exposes the fault-lines beneath their friendships and the self-inflicted heartache that threatens their solidarity.

Angels In America (1993)

What isn't Angels In America about? Tackling Reaganism, McCarthyism, immigration, religion, climate change, and AIDS against the backdrop of New York City in the mid-1980's, Tony Kushner's epic play tells the story of Prior Walter, a gay man afflicted with HIV, whose world is shaken when his lover abandons him and he begins to experience visitations from an angel with some very big plans for humanity. Aided by a cast of characters, each grappling with identity, religion, politics, and the state of America, Tony Kushner's epic tale is ultimately a meditation on the inevitability and necessity of change.

As Is (1985)

In 1985, when AS IS first appeared at the Circle Theatre, AIDS was a new moment in time. A pandemic with no cure or reason. AS IS being one of the first plays, and subsequent teleplay, depicting how AIDS was affecting the LGBT Community. Its power was also in that it focused on a small group of friends - and what it did to them. It proceeded Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart by about a month.

Falsettos (1992)

Falsettos revolves around the life of a charming, intelligent, neurotic gay man named Marvin, his wife, lover, about-to-be-Bar-Mitzvahed son, their psychiatrist, and the lesbians next door. It's a hilarious and achingly poignant look at the infinite possibilities that make up a modern family... and a beautiful reminder that love can tell a million stories.

The Destiny Of Me (1992)

The Destiny of Me, Larry Kramer's companion play to the 1985 classic The Normal Heart, follows Ned Weeks as he checks into a hospital to undergo an experimental treatment for AIDS. As he undergoes treatment, Ned reexamines his life as a young gay man growing up in a household and a world reluctant to accept who he is.

Bent (1979)

Bent is about of group of gay men finding ways to survive persecution before and after the Night of the Long Knives. Within the confines of a concentration camp a secret love affair illustrates how the selfless love of one person for another can overcome oppression, even under the most extreme circumstances. When Bent was written, there was little awareness about the persecution of homosexuals by the Nazis. The play helped increase education and historical research. The original West End production starred Ian McKellen, and Richard Gere played the role on Broadway that premiered in 1979 and later nominated for a Tony Award for Best Play.

Rent (1996)

A re-imagining of Puccini's "La Bohème," and set in New York City's gritty East Village, RENT tells the unforgettable story of seven artists struggling to follow their dreams during a time of great social and political turmoil. Jonathan Larson's tour de force placed gay and gender nonconforming characters and couples at the forefront of its storytelling, bringing the stories of LGBTQ characters to a brand-new generation grappling with the end of the millenium in post-AIDS America.

La Cage Aux Folles (1983)

After twenty years of un-wedded bliss Georges and Albin, two men partnered for better-or-worse get a bit of both when Georges' son (fathered during a one-night fling) announces his impending marriage to the daughter of a bigoted, right-wing politician. Further complicating the situation is the 'family business': Albin and Georges run a drag nightclub in St. Tropez, where Albin is the "star" performer 'Zaza'. Georges reluctantly agrees to masquerade as "normal" when he meets the family of the bride-to-be. But Albin has other plans, with hilarious results. With a book by Torch Song author Harvey Fierstein, and a score by Jerry Herman, 'La Cage' celebrates "love is love is love", romance, and being true to who you really are.