SignOnSanDiego.com – By Anne Marie Welsh – Union Tribune Theater Critic
Fierstein follows mantra to be ‘true to yourself,’ and brings his ‘play with music’ to the Old Globe on way to Broadway
Harvey Fierstein greets San Diego and the Old Globe with hearty thanks ?for inviting me over to your basement.?
The gentle giant, whose voice resembles a bass kazoo, was kidding with that mock of the underground rehearsal hall where he, the 10-member cast and creative team of ?A Catered Affair? assembled last week to meet the local media and the Globe staff.
Beginning as a 16-year-old in drag in Andy Warhol’s play ?Pork,? Fierstein spent much of his early career in downtown New York basements ? most notably the off-off-Broadway La Mama in a converted frankfurter factory.
How a guttural-voiced, drag-loving gay kid from Brooklyn became a beloved icon of mainstream culture is one of the more heartwarming stories in American showbiz.