TORCH SONG's Harvey Fierstein and Michael Urie to Appear on Next Week's THEATER TALK

In 1978, Harvey Fierstein's one-act play International Stud premiered at La MaMa in the East Village - the first play in what would become a series of three. Over the next five years, all three plays moved from various Off-Broadway incarnations into a landmark 1982 three-act production on Broadway titled Torch Song Trilogy. It starred Fierstein as homosexual drag queen Arnold Beckoff, and won him TONY AWARDS for Best Play and Best Actor.

This season Second Stage is reviving this seminal work, calling it just Torch Song ("I took away the word 'Trilogy,'" says Fierstein, "because I don't want people to go, 'What time's this gonna end?'") and starring Michael Urie in Fierstein's role.

Guests this week are Fierstein, Urie and the show's director, Moises Kaufman, discussing with THEATER TALK co-hosts Susan Haskins and Michael Musto the impact of the original plays, and their work on the current revival.

Torch Song Trilogy was groundbreaking, with far-reaching ramifications for gay and heterosexual audiences alike. Kaufman says in the interview, "Harvey not only predicted the next 30 years, but helped us envision it."

Urie shares his own discovery of the play in high school, the extraordinary circumstances that brought about the current production, and a revelation about how he is able to portray a character so keenly identified, for an entire generation and for those that saw the movie version, with Fierstein. Fierstein also shares Ethel Merman's priceless reaction after seeing the original production.

Following is the broadcast/cable schedule for this episode in the New York area:

CUNY TV

Monday, October 30 at 8:00 PM
Saturday, November 4 at 8:30 PM
Sunday, November 5 at 7:00 AM
Monday, November 6 at 7:30 AM, 1:30 PM

PBS/Thirteen

Friday, November 3 at 1:30 AM (Saturday morning)
Sunday, November 5 at 11:30 AM

WLIW/21

Monday, November 6 at 5:30 PM

NYC LIFE/25

Thursday, November 9 at 11:00 PM
Monday, November 13 at 3:30 AM

THEATER TALK, winner of the 2017 Emmy Award for Best Interview/Discussion Show in the NYC area, is jointly produced by the not-for-profits Theater Talk Productions and CUNY TV. The program is taped in the Himan Brown TV and Radio Studios at The City University of New York (CUNY) TV in Manhattan, and is distributed to 100+ participating public television stations nationwide. THEATER TALK is made possible in part by The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and The Friends of Theater Talk.

*CUNY TV, the City University of New York television station, is broadcast in the NYC metropolitan area on digital Ch. 25.3 and cablecast in the city's five boroughs on Ch. 75 (Spectrum & Optimum/Brooklyn), Ch. 77 (RCN), and Ch. 30 (Verizon FiOS). THEATER TALK episodes are available online anytime at www.cuny.tv and www.theatertalk.org and via iTunes.

Pictured: Moise?s Kaufman, Harvey Fierstein, Michael Urie (photo courtesy CUNY TV and Theater Talk Prods.)