Harvey Fierstein J Lo LGBT Youth
“I think [younger LGBTQ people] think that the big struggle was getting gay marriage passed. Young people growing up right now see Zachary Quinto or Neil Patrick Harris in major motion pictures or on television, and think it’s always been this good. I think they have no idea how we would be arrested in the streets, and kept from ever feeling normal. I grew up when people didn’t believe it when you told them Liberace was gay. Liberace!
Now there are museums, community centers and so many resources. There are plenty of books that didn’t exist before. Our history was just so sucked away from us and not allowed, and now we’re reclaiming that history. But remember, there were gays in Hitler’s army, and then all of a sudden you turn around and we’re in concentration camps. You cannot forget that. You need to know that that can happen at any moment.”—Harvey Fierstein, talking to The Hollywood Reporter
I have to agree. Many young people do not know their roots and LGBT history.
IN OTHER NEWS…..
Jennifer Lopez is set to star as Rosie in NBC’s next musical event, Bye Bye Birdie Live! with HARVEY FIERSTEIN!
Now Harvey Fierstein, who is adapting the book and lyrics for the song-and-dance show, has revealed that he is making it less ‘sexist and old-fashioned’.
The 1960 Tony-winning Broadway musical, which inspired the 1963 film, centers on married songwriter-agent Albert and his sweetheart-lover secretary Rosie.
They stage a publicity stunt for famous singer Conrad Birdie (originally based on Elvis Presely) before he’s drafted to the army.
‘I want to be true to the time it takes place but at the same time, having Rosie be Albert’s secretary whom he’s having an affair with, is a little sexist and old-fashioned,’ Harvey said in the interview published in The Hollywood Reporter on Thursday.
‘I didn’t see any reason for that. So I changed that.
‘I made them both high school teachers…He’s the English teacher who writes a song, and she’s the music teacher who says, “I’ve got a great kid with a great voice.”
‘He ends up being Conrad Birdie, who’s supposed to only take one summer off to promote the record but turns into a star,’ he added.
‘It’s been eight years and Rosie just wants to go back to their real lives. It really makes a lot more sense that way.’
The song that opens the musical, An English Teacher, will be altered to suit the new story line, and some of the scenes and songs will be re-ordered to fit live television.
J-Lo also wanted the story to highlight Rosie’s struggle as a Puerto Rican woman about to hit middle age in a relationship with a man afraid of commitment.
That plotline was in the original musical but was cut out of the 1963 film.
Harvey added: ‘Jennifer Lopez knows what she wants out of performing.’
NBC will air Bye Bye Birdie Live! in December but has yet to reveal the exact date.
