Critics have fallen in love with HARVEY FIERSTEIN's TORCH SONG, now on Broadway for a strictly limited engagement.
Ben Brantley of The New York Times calls it "Spectacular! A Grade-A energizing joy!" And Entertainment Weekly raves, "TORCH SONG brings laughter and tears simultaneously. It's impossible not to feel electricity in the theater." Don't miss this "profoundly moving" (The Hollywood Reporter) production of the Tony Award-winning play, starring Drama Desk Award winner MICHAEL URIE ("Younger," "Ugly Betty," Buyer & Cellar) and Academy Award and Tony winner MERCEDES RUEHL (The Fisher King, Lost in Yonkers), directed by Tony nominee MOISES KAUFMAN (The Laramie Project, I Am My Own Wife).
Hilarious 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.
Join 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.
The production felt a little choppy and uncertain last fall, with the talented Urie doubling down on self-satirizing Arnold by rendering the lovelorn professional drag queen a mushy caricature. Not only does he now feel more like a flesh-and-blood person - his needs and vulnerabilities and the self-defense mechanism of his caustic wit all achingly human; his vocal mannerisms part of who he is, not just a layer of performance - but the staging has acquired greater fluidity and emotional richness. David Zinn's sets (ranging from suggestive minimalism through playful stylization to homey detail) and David Lander's descriptive lighting also look gorgeous on the Hayes stage, as do the pleasingly understated period costumes of Clint Ramos.
As if to confront and wrestle down any datedness head-on, Kaufman and his cast go broad. Like, vaudeville broad, with Urie doing his damnedest to drown out all memory of Fierstein's foghorn by calling forth a bizarre vocal affectation somewhere between Bert Lahr's Cowardly Lion and Hanna-Barbera's Snagglepuss. I'd like to think of it as an homage to theater's great nances, but I'm afraid it's just cartoon Virginia ham.
1930 | Broadway |
Broadway |
2018 | Broadway |
Second Stage Broadway Revival Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2019 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play | Torch Song |
2019 | Tony Awards | Best Costume Design of a Play | Clint Ramos |
2019 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Play | Harvey Fierstein |
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