Torch Song Trilogy, 1982

The run closed May 18, 1985

Opened

1982

Closed

May 18, 1985

Performances

1,222

Previews

Unknown

Theatre

Unknown

Of the 464 productions we hold that opened in the 1980s and carry a performance count, this is the 9th longest. That is a rank within what we hold, not within everything that was staged.

Who was in it27 named

Susan Edwards
Paul Joynt
Diane Tarleton
Donald Corren
Philip Coccioletti
Raymond Baker
Christopher Collett
Chevi Colton
Jon Cryer
Christopher Gartin
Ken Jacobson
Jared Martin
David Orange
Jeffrey Rogers
Craig Sheffer
Tom Stechschulte
Matthew Vipond

10 of these 27 names have a person record behind them and link to one. The other 17 are set from the identifier in the cast list, which is a slug of the name, so hyphens and full stops are lost and a few come out wrong. We hold nothing else about them. Nobody here is matched to a character: the cast list records who was in the company and not what they played.

Creative team

Director

Peter Pope

A producer is one string on this record, however many people or companies it names. Directors and choreographers are held both as text and as identifiers; where an identifier exists the name links to a page.

Around this production

Torch Song Trilogy is a collection of three plays by Harvey Fierstein rendered in three acts: International Stud, Fugue in a Nursery, and Widows and Children First! The story centers on Arnold Beckoff, a Jewish homosexual, drag queen, and torch singer who lives in New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The four-hour play begins with a soliloquy in which he explains his cynical disillusionment with love.

BRODERICK, MATTHEW. Bom in 1963 in NYC. Debut OB 1981 in Torch Song Trilogy. Theatre World 1981 82 Season V 38 Willis, p. 201

• Harvey Fierstein (Edna Turnblat), as Tracy’s mother who takes in laundry to help meet the bills, returned to Broadway for the first time since Torch Song Trilogy. Broadway Musicals Show By Show Seventh Edition Stanley Green Cary Ginell, p. 313
• The next hit was Harvey Fierstein’s three one-act plays, Torch Song Trilogy (6/10/83; 1,222 performances). Fierstein’s popular play dealt with gay themes in a sometimes frank way. Broadway Its History People and Places An Encyclopedia Bloom Ken 1949 2nd Ed New, p. 325
• With a book by Torch Song Trilogy author and gay activist Harvey Fierstein, and direction by the outspoken and highly politi- cized Arthur Laurents, La Cage might have easily become a polemic diatribe on gay rights. Broadway Musicals the 101 Greatest Shows of All Time Bloom Ken 1949 Vlastnik Fra, p. 183
• Harvey Fierstein (Torch Song Trilogy) Theatre World 2009 2010 Season V 66 Willis, p. 423
• Waissman continued to produce and would have five more Broadway productions, ranging from disastrous (Street Corner Symphony ) to solid (Agnes of God ) to prestigious: Torch Song Trilogy won the Best Play Tony in 1983 and ran 1,222 performances. B007l4owcu Ebok Peter Filichia, p. 110

Passages naming this production, found by keyword across 178 books. Where it turns up in the literature, not curated notes about it.

What this page does not know

• No photograph of this staging.
• No character names. We can say who was in the company and not who they played.
• No recording is held for Torch Song Trilogy at all.
• Reviews, box office, running order, understudies and designers: none of it is held for any production.