BROADWAY CAST ANNOUNCED FOR “HARVEY FIERSTEIN’S TORCH SONG”
Press Contact:
Rick Miramontez / Aaron Meier / Collin Yarusso
rick@omdkc.com / aaron@omdkc.com / collin@omdkc.com
212 695 7400
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE
“HARVEY FIERSTEIN’S TORCH SONG”
ANNOUNCES COMPLETE CASTING
MICHAEL URIE & MERCEDES RUEHL
TO BE JOINED BY ENTIRE ORIGINAL SECOND STAGE THEATER CAST
WARD HORTON, ROXANNA HOPE RADJA,
MICHAEL HSU ROSEN, AND JACK Di FALCO
DIRECTOR MOISÉS KAUFMAN’S
CRITICALLY ADORED PRODUCTION
BEGINS PREVIEWS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 9
FOR A THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 1 OPENING NIGHT
AT THE HAYES THEATER
New York, NY (April 10, 2018) – Producer Richie Jackson announced today complete casting for the upcoming Broadway production of Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song which recently received Lucille Lortel Award nominations for Outstanding Revival and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Play for Michael Urie. Joining Mr. Urie and Tony Award® and Academy Award® winner Mercedes Ruehl will be the entire cast from the critically adored Second Stage production: Ward Horton, Roxanna Hope Radja, Michael Hsu Rosen, and Jack DiFalco.
The limited engagement of Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song will begin previews Tuesday, October 9 ahead of a Thursday, November 1 opening night at Broadway’s Hayes Theater (240 West 44th Street), the same Broadway stage where the Tony Award-winning premiere forever changed the face of popular entertainment and ushered in a new era of American understanding of love and family.
Fiercely funny and heart-wrenching, Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song follows Arnold Beckoff’s (Mr. Urie) 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 (Ms. Ruehl) 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.
Torch Song Trilogy first premiered on Broadway in 1982 at the Little Theatre, now the Hayes Theater, where it ran for three years. Written by and starring Mr. Fierstein, Torch Song Trilogy won Tony Awards for Best Play and Best Actor in a Play. Now, 36 years later, this landmark play returns to the Hayes under the title: Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song.
Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song is produced by Richie Jackson, Stephanie P. McClelland, David Mirvish, Judith Ann Abrams/CJC and Priest, Burnt Umber Productions/True Love Productions, Caiola Denoff-Salmira Hirschhorn Kierstead, Lassen Radford/Karmen Boyz Productions, Perniciaro & Emanuel, Jujamcyn Theaters, and Second Stage Theater.
Tickets can be purchased at telecharge.com or by calling 212-239-6200. Group discounts are available for groups of 10 or more through Givenik/Jujamcyn Group Sales by calling 212-840-8181.
To learn more about the show and for additional information, please visit www.torchsongbroadway.com.
Additional news, including the creative team for Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song, will be announced shortly.
BIOGRAPHIES
Harvey Fierstein (Playwright) won two Tony Awards for Torch Song Trilogy (Best Play, Best Actor). He has also written the Tony-winning hit Kinky Boots (now playing on four continents), as well as La Cage aux Folles (Tony and Drama Desk Awards), Newsies (Tony nominated), Casa Valentina (Tony nominated), A Catered Affair (12 Drama Desk nominations), Safe Sex (Ace Award), Legs Diamond, Spookhouse, Flatbush Tosca, Common Ground, and more. He recently wrote teleplays for NBC’s live television broadcasts of “Hairspray” and “The Wiz” and the upcoming “Bye Bye Birdie.” He also revised the book for Funny Girl, which ran to critical acclaim in London. His political editorials have been published in the New York Times, TV Guide, and the Huffington Post, and broadcast on PBS’s “In the Life.” His children’s book, The Sissy Duckling (Humanitas Award), is now in its fifth printing. As an actor, Mr. Fierstein is known worldwide for his performances in films including “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “Independence Day,” and “Bullets Over Broadway,” on stage in Hairspray (Tony Award), Fiddler on the Roof, La Cage aux Folles, and on television shows such as “Smash,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “The Good Wife,” “Cheers” (Emmy nomination), “The Simpsons,” “Family Guy,” and “Nurse Jackie.”
Moisés Kaufman (Director) is the founder and artistic director of Tectonic Theater Project, a Tony- and Emmy-nominated director and playwright, and a 2015 recipient of the National Medal of Arts. Mr. Kaufman’s Broadway directing credits include the revival of The Heiress with Jessica Chastain, 33 Variations (which he also wrote) starring Jane Fonda (five Tony nominations); Rajiv Joseph’s Pulitzer Prize finalist Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo with Robin Williams; and Doug Wright’s Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning play I Am My Own Wife with Jefferson Mays.
His play The Laramie Project (which he wrote with the Tectonic Theater Project) is among the most performed plays in America. Other credits include Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (which he also wrote), The Tallest Tree in the Forest (Mark Taper, BAM), The Nightengale (La Jolla Playhouse), The Common Pursuit (Roundabout), Macbeth with Liev Schreiber (Public Theater), This Is How It Goes (Donmar Warehouse), One Arm by Tennessee Williams (New Group and Steppenwolf Theatre Company), the opera El Gato con Botas (Puss in Boots) at the New Victory Theater, and Master Class with Rita Moreno (Berkeley Repertory Theatre). Kaufman also co-wrote and directed the HBO film adaptation of The Laramie Project, which received Emmy Award nominations for Best Director and Best Writer. He is an Obie winner and a Guggenheim Fellow in Playwriting.
Michael Urie (Arnold). Theatre: Torch Song (2018 Lortel Award nomination); Hamlet; Bright Colors and Bold Patterns (director); The Government Inspector; Buyer & Cellar (Drama Desk, Clarence Derwent, Lucille Lortel, LA Drama Critics Awards); Homos, Or Everyone in America (Obie Award), Shows for Days, The Cherry Orchard, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Angels In America, The Temperamentals (Lucille Lortel, Drama Desk, Theatre World Awards). Film: He’s Way More Famous Than You, Thank You for Judging, Beverly Hills Chihuahua, WTC View, Such Good People, The Hyperglot, Decoy Bride. TV: “Younger,” “Modern Family,” “The Good Wife,” “Workaholics,” “Partners,” “Ugly Betty.” Web series: “What’s Your Emergency.” Regional Theatre: Shakespeare Theatre, Folger, Old Globe, South Coast Rep, Seattle Rep, The Blank, Barrington Stage, and Vineyard Playhouse.
Mercedes Ruehl (Ma) won an Academy Award, Golden Globe, Chicago Film Critics Award, and Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King. For Neil Simon’s Lost in Yonkers, she earned Tony, Helen Hayes, and Drama Desk Awards. Her other New York theatre credits include The Shadowbox (Tony nomination), Edward Albee’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Goat, or Who is Sylvia (Tony nomination), Woman Before A Glass (Obie Award), Christopher Durang’s The Marriage of Bette and Boo (Obie Award), Other People’s Money (Clarence Derwent Award), Tennessee Williams’ The Rose Tattoo (Drama Desk nomination), Richard Greenberg’s The American Plan, and Edward Albee’s The Occupant. At London’s Old Vic, she co-starred with Jeff Goldblum in Neil Simon’s Prisoner of Second Avenue and most recently revived Full Gallop, a one-woman show about Diana Vreeland at San Diego’s Old Globe.
Ruehl came to popular attention with her portrayal as the gun-toting wife of a Mafia don in Married to the Mob which earned her a National Society of Film Critics Award. Her other film credits include Big, For Roseanna, Gurinder Chadha’s What’s Cookin’, More Dogs Than Bones, Another You, Heartburn, 84 Charing Cross Road, Leader of the Band, The Secret of My Success, Slaves of New York, Crazy People, and Chu and Blossom.
Her television credits include guest and recurring roles on “Life in Pieces,” “NCIS,” “The Mysteries of Laura,” “Two Broke Girls,” “Power,” “Luck” (series regular), “Law & Order: SVU,” “Subway Stories: Tales from The Underground,” “Indictment: The McMartin Trial,” “North Shore Fish,” “Psych,” “Monday Mornings,” “Frasier,” “A Girl Like Me,” and starred in HBO’s Golden Globe and Emmy winning telefilm Gia.
Ward Horton (Ed) is an American film, television, and theatre actor. Born in Morristown, NJ, Horton moved to North Carolina with his family before deciding to move to New York City to pursue acting. Horton was the male lead in the horror film Annabelle, which is a spin-off of the horror hit The Conjuring, which grossed over $245 million worldwide.
On the big screen, Hortons’s additional film credits include Midnighters, Alto, Marcy, The Wolf of Wall Street, I Hate Valentine’s Day, Veronika Decided to Die, The Mighty Macs, We Fight to Be Free, Falling for Grace, The Good Shepherd, Christmas Wish List, Four-Eyed Monster, Nail Polish, Dress Rehearsal, and Loverboy.
On the small screen, Ward has appeared in the following television shows: “Pure Genius,” “Royal Pains,” “One Life to Live,” “White Collar,” “Body of Proof,” “CSI: Miami,” “Law & Order,” “Mercy,” “Fringe,” “Gossip Girl,” “Day Break,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Hope & Faith,” “All My Children,” and “Guiding Light.” In addition to Torch Song, Ward has also been involved in theatre productions such as In Masks Outrageous and Austere, The Autobiography of God, Supper’s Ready, Bash: Latterday Plays, Equus, Dancing with Dani, and Lost in Yonkers. Mr. Horton currently resides in Connecticut with his family.
Roxanna Hope Radja (Laurel). Broadway: Frost/Nixon, After the Fall, The Women, Boeing-Boeing (understudy), and others. Off-Broadway: Dan Cody’s Yacht (Manhattan Theatre Club); The Ruins of Civilization (Manhattan Theatre Club); Ode to Joy, Horsedreams (Rattlestick Theater); Mahida’s Extra Key To Heaven (Epic Theater Co.); Princess Turandot (Blue Light Theater Co.); 1001 Arabian Nights. Regional: Hedda Gabler (Hartford Stage); Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Richard III, Julius Caesar, Pericles (Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey); Tartuffe, Indian Ink, Hecuba (American Conservatory Theater). Other regional: Williamstown Theater Festival, Huntington Theater, Westport Country Playhouse, Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and others. Film and television: Puncture, “Elementary,” “Blue Bloods,” “Unforgettable,” “The Good Wife,” Law &Order: SVU,” “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: CI,” “All My Children” and others. MFA: The American Conservatory Theater
Michael Hsu Rosen (Alan) was last seen on stage as Alan in the Off-Broadway revival of Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song directed by Moisés Kaufman. He has appeared on Broadway in On the Town and as Chino in West Side Story directed by Arthur Laurents. His other theater credits include Colman Domingo’s Dot at the Vineyard Theatre directed by Susan Stroman, Do I Hear a Waltz? directed by Evan Cabnet at City Center Encores!, Somewhere starring opposite Tony Award Winner Priscilla Lopez at Hartford Stage for which he received a nomination for Best Actor at the 2014 Connecticut Critics Circle Awards, and Nikolai and the Others directed by David Cromer at Lincoln Center Theater. His on-screen credits include Jimmy in Looking: The Movie on HBO, Dating My Mother, “Sinatra: Voice for a Century – Live from Lincoln Center” on PBS, “Taxi Brooklyn” on NBC, and The Empty Building. He was selected for the 2016 ABC Discovers: Talent Showcase in New York City.
Jack DiFalco (David) was raised in upstate New York in Stormville and graduated high school from John J. High. Broadway debut: Marvin’s Room directed by Anne Kaufman. Off-Broadway: Torch Song (Second Stage) directed by Moises Kaufman, Yen (MCC) with Lucas Hedges, directed by Trip Cullman, Mercury Fur (The New Group), directed by Scott Elliott, Lord of The Flies (Denver Center). Film: Goldfinch; Paterno; One Percent More Humid with Juno Temple and Alessandro Nivola (Tribeca Film Festival 2017); Bully with Danny Trejo (Garden State Film Festival 2017); I Can, I Will, I Did with Selenis Leyva (Asian Pacific Film Festival 2017); Rocket Man; Naranja; The Hard Sell; Sylvan Esso’s music video “Glow” and Aoife O’Donovan’s music video “Beekeeper.” Television: “Daredevil,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “The OA,” “Blue Bloods.” 2015 Clive Barnes Foundation nominee for New Emerging Talent in Theatre. Training: SUNY Purchase Workshop 2013, Yorktown Stage Company, Trinity Players. Instagram: @jackdifalco.
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