Harvey Fierstein. (2022). I Was Better Last Night: A Memoir. Unabridged Books on Tape.

Harvey Fierstein. 2022. I Was Better Last Night: A Memoir. Books on Tape.

Harvey Fierstein, I Was Better Last Night: A Memoir. Books on Tape, 2022.

Harvey Fierstein. I Was Better Last Night: A Memoir. Unabridged Books on Tape, 2022.

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I Was Better Last Night

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   • bioText: HARVEY FIERSTEIN is the Tony Award-winning author of Torch Song Trilogy and La Cage aux Folles. His other theater writings include Kinky Boots, Newsies, Casa Valentina (all Tony-nominated), A Catered Affair (twelve Drama Desk nominations), and Bella Bella, and his theater performances include, Torch Song Trilogy and Hairspray (Tony Awards for both), Fiddler on the Roof, La Cage aux Folles, Gently Down the Stream, and A Catered Affair. His film and television appearances include Mrs. Doubtfire, The Good Wife, and Cheers (Emmy nominated), and he has voiced characters in the film Mulan, and the shows Big Mouth, The Dark Crystal, BoJack Horseman, and many more. He lives in a small fictional town in Connecticut with whatever animals will have him.
   • name: Harvey Fierstein
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   • fileAs: Fierstein, Harvey
   • bioText: HARVEY FIERSTEIN is the Tony Award-winning author of Torch Song Trilogy and La Cage aux Folles. His other theater writings include Kinky Boots, Newsies, Casa Valentina (all Tony-nominated), A Catered Affair (twelve Drama Desk nominations), and Bella Bella, and his theater performances include, Torch Song Trilogy and Hairspray (Tony Awards for both), Fiddler on the Roof, La Cage aux Folles, Gently Down the Stream, and A Catered Affair. His film and television appearances include Mrs. Doubtfire, The Good Wife, and Cheers (Emmy nominated), and he has voiced characters in the film Mulan, and the shows Big Mouth, The Dark Crystal, BoJack Horseman, and many more. He lives in a small fictional town in Connecticut with whatever animals will have him.
   • name: Harvey Fierstein

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2022-03-01T00:00:00-05:00

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I Was Better Last Night

fullDescription

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A poignant and hilarious memoir from the cultural icon, gay rights activist, and four-time Tony Award–winning actor and playwright, revealing never-before-told stories of his personal struggles and conflict, of sex and romance, and of his fabled career
Harvey Fierstein’s legendary career has transported him from community theater in Brooklyn, to the lights of Broadway, to the absurd excesses of Hollywood and back. He’s received accolades and awards for acting in and/or writing an incredible string of hit plays, films, and TV shows: Hairspray,  Fiddler on the Roof, Mrs. Doubtfire, Independence Day, Cheers, La Cage Aux Folles, Torch Song Trilogy, Newsies, and Kinky Boots. While he has never shied away from the spotlight, Mr. Fierstein says that even those closest to him have never heard most of the tales—of personal struggles and conflict, of sex and romance, of his fabled career—revealed in these wildly entertaining pages.
 
I Was Better Last Night bares the inner life of this eccentric nonconforming child from his roots in 1952 Brooklyn, to the experimental worlds of Andy Warhol and the Theatre of the Ridiculous, to the gay rights movements of the seventies and the tumultuous AIDS crisis of the eighties, through decades of addiction, despair, and ultimate triumph.
 
Mr. Fierstein’s candid recollections provide a rich window into downtown New York City life, gay culture, and the evolution of theater (of which he has been a defining figure), as well as a moving account of his family’s journey of acceptance. I Was Better Last Night is filled with wisdom gained, mistakes made, and stories that come together to describe an astonishingly colorful and meaningful life. Lucky for us all, his unique and recognizable voice is as engaging, outrageously funny, and vulnerable on the page.

reviews

1. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content: This wonderful audiobook is a special treat for those who know and love actor, writer, director Harvey Fierstein. He narrates the book himself in THAT VOICE. His singular, often outrageous, perspective reflects his artistry. His writing is frequently poetic, always awake and aware, smoothly blending with the coarser street speech of his early Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, neighborhood. His wit is without peer. Winner of numerous awards for such works as KINKY BOOTS, HAIRSPRAY, FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, and TORCH SONG TRILOGY, Fierstein recounts his larger-than-life personal and artistic triumphs and failures, frequently passing on the credit for his successes to his colleagues. With wildly funny anecdotes sprinkled throughout (no one can do that combination of sweetness and vitriol quite like Fierstein), this is a must-listen. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
2. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from May 1, 2022
     

     The only thing better than reading Fierstein's memoir is listening to him read it. Yes, the four-time Tony Award-winning actor and playwright speaks with his trademark gravelly rasp, but it's an endearing and expressive growl. And no one delivers sardonic one-liners like he can. Commenting on his 1995 comedy album, he says, "I have a few hundred unsold CDs in my basement. They make great coasters, or wired up and hung as a mobile, they scare critters from vegetable gardens." Fierstein's theater career began in his teens when he was cast in Andy Warhol's only play, Pork. When he wrote and starred in Torch Song Trilogy in 1983, few thought a gay play running four hours would succeed. But it won him two Tony Awards and ran for three years. Fierstein has numerous tales of writing Broadway hits Kinky Boots, Newsies, La Cage Aux Folles and starring in Hairspray and Fiddler on the Roof. He also deals candidly with his alcoholism and a past suicide attempt. At the end of this 12.5-hour unabridged reading, listeners will clamor for more. VERDICT A big-hearted, hilarious, life-affirming memoir of Fierstein's gay activism and life in the theater.--Kevin Howell

     Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

3. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     January 24, 2022
     Fierstein, author and star of the Broadway hit Torch Song Trilogy, looks back on his show-biz travails and the struggle for gay rights in this raucous debut memoir. He recaps his parts in theater, movies, and TV—from an early turn as an asthmatic, coprophiliac, lesbian maid in Andy Warhol’s Pork to a portrayal of Congresswoman Bella Abzug—and his playwrighting achievements in groundbreaking gay-themed blockbusters like Torch Song and the musical La Cage aux Folles. Along the way, Fierstein spotlights celebrity japes—he threatened to crush comedian Jon Stewart’s genitalia in a movie scene but praised singer-songwriter James Taylor’s endowment when they shared a hot tub—as well as lurid episodes from New York’s gay demimonde of the 1970s and ’80s, and a bout with alcoholism that ended with a suicide attempt. Readers will appreciate his blunt takes on anti-gay discrimination in matters small (“Why do the straight guys always get laid in movies while the gay characters almost never do?”) and large (“The heterosexual community... let us die,” he writes of the AIDS crisis, “issuing sighs of relief that they had nothing to worry about”). Defined by a campy yet bittersweet comic sensibility, Fierstein’s vivid writing about the pratfalls, exhilaration, and painstaking craft of a life in theater beguiles. Photos.

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NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • A poignant and hilarious memoir from the cultural icon, gay rights activist, and four-time Tony Award–winning actor and playwright, revealing never-before-told stories of his personal struggles and conflict, of sex and romance, and of his fabled career
Harvey Fierstein’s legendary career has transported him from community theater in Brooklyn, to the lights of Broadway, to the absurd excesses of Hollywood and back. He’s received accolades and awards for acting in and/or writing an incredible string of hit plays, films, and TV shows: Hairspray,  Fiddler on the Roof, Mrs. Doubtfire, Independence Day, Cheers, La Cage Aux Folles, Torch Song Trilogy, Newsies, and Kinky Boots. While he has never shied away from the spotlight, Mr. Fierstein says that even those closest to him have never heard most...

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