INTERVIEW: ‘Torch Song’ features characters searching, yearning for happiness
Photo: Roxanna Hope Radja, Ward Horton, Michael Urie and Michael Hsu Rosen star in Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song on Broadway. Photo courtesy of Matthew Murphy / Provided by DKC/O&M with permission.
Torch Song, being revived on Broadway at the Helen Hayes Theatre, is a profound and hilarious look at love and happiness in New York City. The show, written by Harvey Fierstein, was originally a trilogy of three plays, but Second Stage Theater’s revival condenses the original into one evening that details the trials and tribulations of Michael Urie’s Arnold, a gay man trying to find a steady and satisfying relationship in the 1970s and 1980s.
Joining Urie on stage is Mercedes Ruehl as Mrs. Beckoff, Arnold’s mother; Ward Horton as Ed, who falls for Arnold after they meet at a bar called International Stud; and Roxanna Hope Radja as Laurel, the woman who eventually settles down with Ed, after he leaves Arnold. Rounding out the cast are Jack DiFalco as David, a young man who looks up to Arnold for guidance, and Michael Hsu Rosen as Alan, who begins a relationship with Arnold after Ed leaves for Laurel.
For Radja, who has appeared on Broadway in Frost/Nixon and The Women, the revival of Fierstein’s play is a special bullet point on her illustrious résumé — but it’s also an opportunity that almost didn’t happen.
“I got notified that they wanted to audition me, and I read it,” Radja said in a recent phone interview. “I was blown away by it just on the page. It surprised me in its humor and also that it wasn’t at all dated. It was still very funny and also very heartbreaking and very relevant, and I also knew that Moisés Kaufman would be directing. I had always wanted to work with him, and I knew that Michael and Merecedes were attached, too. So there was so much about it that was very appealing, not the least of which was that it’s just a brilliant play.”
The problem was that Radja was out of town for the audition, so she needed to read the part on a video recording. She thought at the time the tape would take her out of the running, but to her surprise she was called back for a second audition. This time, however, she was traveling in Vienna and Budapest.
“So while I was in Vienna, I received a call from my agent saying that they were still interested, and they wanted to see if they could do a callback,” she said. “They would have to do a Skype callback while I was in Budapest, so we did that over video, which is when I first met Moisés. … That went quite well, and then Moisés wanted to see me in person. We were going to have a very brief crossover. He was going to be traveling to Europe the day after I flew back, and I was supposed to fly back and go straight from the airport to the audition. Unfortunately, I was on the tarmac for five hours, and then my flight got canceled. So I thought that was it, but thankfully Moisés was able to reschedule it. And we had about a two- or three-hour window where my flight the next day would get in. I would go straight from the airport to the audition, which I did, and he offered it to me there. And then he flew off to Europe himself.”
Radja said she had the best sleep of her life that night. She had just landed a role in Torch Song, which began life at Second Stage’s off-Broadway home, and she also hadn’t slept in three days. “By that point, I really, really was so emotionally and spiritually attached to the character and the idea of doing this amazing play,” she said.
The character of Laurel is an interesting one. She is featured in the second part of the trilogy, known as Fugue in a Nursery. Audiences first meet her hanging out in bed with Ed, who at this point has left Arnold and started this long-term relationship with Laurel. However, Arnold is still welcomed in their household, and Laurel knows about Ed’s previous life. On the surface, she seems accepting of him, and she has a lot of love to share — even with Arnold.
“What I think is amazing about the way Harvey wrote her and then also what Moisés’ immediate instinct about her was, which was my instinct as well, no one veered toward what would be a stereotypical or expected reaction for a woman in this situation,” Radja said. “You would think that anyone in this situation would immediately respond by being jealous or protective of themselves and the relationship in a way that would shut out other people. I find [amongst] audience members, one of the most common things they say to me is that they are so shocked in the top of the scene when you first meet Laurel that she knows about this past relationship, and she knows that Ed was so attached to Arnold. She still has invited them [to their country house] and wants them to be a part of her life, so my immediate instinct about her was that she’s a very positive person.”
When Arnold visits the couple, he brings his new boyfriend, Alan. All four of the characters have interesting, revealing and oftentimes hilarious conversations side by side, all in one giant bed. They discuss their past, their present and what the future might hold. One can sense that Arnold and Ed still love each other.
“I think Laurel inhabits [positivity] through psychiatry, through her therapy and through her pop psychiatry that she feels has guided her past her bad relationships,” Radja said. “She discovers that she could make things work, and that with Ed, she’s absolutely, doggedly determined to make it happen and not go a conventional route. I think she’s fascinated. I think she just missed being a flower child, if you look at the timeline of when she would have been born for her to be in this scene with them. … I think she’s fascinated by the artistic life and the bohemian life and not being conventional, that maybe there are other ways to live, that maybe we could invite past lovers into our lives, and we could all be friends because she is so well-versed in psychiatry and therapy.”
Torch Song touches upon many important issues, perhaps chief among them is acceptance for the gay community. Arnold faces adulation in his singing and comedy career (he’s a drag queen), but struggles to find a relationship that moves beyond the anonymous hookups in the local bar. His mother gets along with him, but she can send verbal daggers to Arnold when discussing topics like his deceased father, his desire to adopt a child and his relationship with Alan.
Laurel has a similar depth; she’s also on a quest for love and wants to find her identity amidst the struggles and yearning around her.
“I think she’s living in a very giddy delusion when you first meet her, and yet at the same time, I think there is a part of her deep down that suspects that things are not as funny as she’s striving for them to be,” Radja said. “So my approach was just to really begin in that place of determination and light and love, and that I would understand [Ed’s] feelings of jealousy and need, that I would embrace them, that I would not judge him, that I would show him that I am capable of embracing anyone that has been in his past and that he needs to know that I would prove myself to Arnold and Alan.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Torch Song, written by Harvey Fierstein and directed by Moisés Kaufman, is currently playing the Helen Hayes Theatre on Broadway. The play, starring Michael Urie, Mercedes Ruehl and Roxanna Hope Radja, is a production of Second Stage Theater. Click here for more information and tickets.
