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For the American playwright and actor, life has often been a drag — but in a good way
You would think that, having won four Tony Awards, Harvey Fierstein would no longer need a "recognisable edge". Yet, on stage, he is recognisable not so much for his fleshy face as for his rasping voice. "I'm in a business where there are 5,000 people going for every role. Anything that gives you a recognisable edge is a good thing," he says about the acting half of his career. "On the phone I've been called madam, which really makes me laugh," he says.
Even so, Fierstein is sick of interviewers focusing on his voice. "Come on, ask me some questions," he says in the hope of moving the conversation away from that familiarly benign growl and on to La Cage aux Folles, the award-winning musical for which Fierstein wrote the book and which opens at the Menier Chocolate Factory next week. But if a coffee grinder could talk, it would sound like Harvey Fierstein.
