Harvey Fierstein's groundbreaking Torch Song returning to Broadway

Harvey Fierstein’s acclaimed play Torch Song will transfer to Broadway, EW has confirmed, with Drama Desk Award winner Michael Urie and Tony and Academy Award winner Mercedes Ruehl set to join the cast. The production will open this fall at the Hayes Theater, the same Broadway venue where it premiered 36 years ago; its revival, directed by Tony nominee Moisés Kaufman, has played off-Broadway to sold-out shows.

“Seeing this new production of Torch Song was thrilling,” Fierstein said in a statement. “The audiences’ laughter seemed heartier, their tears more profound, and I could not have been happier. Now comes the news that we’re moving home to the Hayes Theater this fall and all I can say is, dreams do come true!”

Fierstein’s Torch Song trilogy premiered off-off-Broadway in 1978, and introduced audiences to Arnold Beckoff, a gay Jewish drag queen and torch singer living in New York through the ’70s and ’80s. The groundbreaking play, which presented pop culture with an effeminate queer hero at a time in which they were extremely rare, won the Tony and Drama Desk for Best Play. It originally ran on Broadway for three years.

“I am thrilled that Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song will return to its original Broadway theater,” Second Stage artistic director Carole Rothman added. “I can think of no better production to move from the Kiser to the Hayes than Moisés Kaufman’s brilliant production of Harvey’s timeless play.”

The new Broadway production, directed by Richie Jackson, is a strictly limited engagement. It will open Nov. 1.