Diversionary presents “Torch Song Trilogy”

Diversionary production celebrates the 25th Anniversary of the award-winning Broadway production

Diversionary Theatre will present Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy as the third show of its 2007-2008 season. Running November 15-December 16, Torch Song Trilogy premiered on Broadway in June 1982, and went on to win the Tony Award for Best Play for that season, and a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for Mr. Fierstein. As much a reflection of the importance of family and love, Torch Song Trilogy is hailed as a classic comedy in Gay Theater. The play was one of the first Broadway shows to have a major gay theme in its plot. The 1988 movie version with Harvey Fierstein, Matthew Broderick and Anne Bancroft was also one of the first mainstream movies to feature homosexuality as its main theme. But the universal themes of finding self-respect, love and the importance of family is what has made this story a classic with both gay and non-gay audiences.

Diversionary’s production will celebrate the 25th Anniversary of this milestone event. Tim Irving will direct, and Matthew Weeden will play Arnold Beckoff, the role Mr. Fierstein wrote for himself. The cast includes Jill Drexler, Sidney Franklin, Barron Henzel, Amanda Sitton and Tom Zohar. The creative team includes: G. Scott Lacy (casting), David Weiner (set design), Bonnie Breckenridge (lighting design), Jennifer Braun Gittings (costume design), Amy Reams (properties), and Chris Powell (stage manager).

At the height of the post-Stonewall clone era, Harvey Fierstein challenged both gay and straight audiences to champion an effeminate gay man's longings for love and family. His creation, Arnold Beckoff, was a fully realized character who had an active sex life, a tragic love story, and a gay teenage foster son. Arnold, a professional drag queen, in pre-AIDS New York, faces three important challenges: searching for love, wrestling with love’s complications, and defining “family” for a Jewish, gay man.

Torch Song Trilogy was originally performed as three separate one-act plays. The first play, The International Stud, introduces Arnold, a Jewish female impersonator who is struggling to find love with bisexual schoolteacher Ed. Fugue in a Nursery ensues in the second play after Ed leaves Arnold for girlfriend Laurel – the setting is a weekend country house where chaos breaks out when Arnold introduces his new, young, model-boyfriend Alan to Ed. The final play, Widows and Children First! brings Arnold face-to-face with parenthood with an adopted son and the only thing that really scares Arnold: the impending visit from his mother.

The Little Theatre hosted the Broadway run for 1,222 performances. The play won Fierstein two Tony Awards, for Best Play and Best Actor in Play, two Drama Desk Awards, for Outstanding New Play and Outstanding Actor in a Play, and the Theatre World Award. The play's critical and commercial success led directly to the musical La Cage aux Folles, with its book by Harvey Fierstein. In 1988, Fierstein adapted his play for a feature film directed by Paul Bogart. New Line Cinema insisted he restrict the film to a running time of two hours, which necessitated copious excisions. Fierstein regressed the time frame to a decade earlier than the play in order to justify his decision not to make mention of the AIDS epidemic at a time when it was very much a part of the public's awareness.

In a November 2002 article in The Advocate, playwright Charles Busch reflected on the 20th Anniversary of the Broadway production. “Mainstream acceptance of the uncompromising Torch Song Trilogy allowed aspiring gay playwrights to no longer feel foolish fantasizing that their work might one day be produced on a Broadway stage. Harvey Fierstein's play gave the public a vision of gay life that was outrageous yet completely accessible. And it gave all of us gay people toiling in the theater the possibility of unlimited dreams. Audiences found themselves sympathizing with a gay man mourning the death of his lover. Torch Song paved the way for all the plays that shortly afterward would explore the scourge of AIDS in the gay community. Two decades later, television's Will & Grace, with its cozy middle-class depiction of campy gay characters, can trace its ancestry to Arnold Beckoff and company.”

Torch Song Trilogy marks director Tim Irving’s eleventh outing with Diversionary Theatre. His past shows include The Rocky Horror Show, Jeffrey, The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told, the highly received revival of Boys In The Band, the musical Falsettos, Valhalla, and both productions of Love! Valour! Compassion! Torch Song Trilogy marks two special anniversaries for Irving. Ten years ago he played the musical theatre loving Buzz in Diversionary’s first production of Love! Valour! Compassion!, directed by Sean Murray. Twenty years ago he played the part of Arnold in the San Diego premiere of Torch Song Trilogy at the North Coast Repertory Theatre.

Diversionary Theatre was started in 1986. The mission of the theatre is to produce plays with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender themes that portray characters in their complexity and diversity both historically and contemporarily.

Torch Song Trilogy is the third show of Diversionary Theatre’s 2007-2008 season, and will preview on Thursday and Friday, November 15 and 16, and open on Saturday, November 17 and run through Sunday, December 16. Due to the length of the play, earlier performance times are: Thursday at 7:00pm, Friday and Saturday at 7:30pm, Sunday at 2:00pm, and a Wednesday, November 28 performance at 7:00pm (the Wed. performance replaces the previously announcded Monday, November 26 performance).

Single tickets are now on sale. Tickets are $31 for Thursday, Sunday and Monday performances, $33 for Friday nights and $35 for Saturday nights, with a $4 discount for students, seniors 60+ and active military. Tickets for opening night will be $45 and include a post-show cast party, which will be hosted by Philip m Katcher.

Groups of 10-29 receive a $4 discount, and groups of 30+ receive an $8 discount. For tickets or information, call the Diversionary box office at 619.220.0097 or log on to www.diversionary.org.

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The City of San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture provides major support for Diversionary Theatre.