''Torch Song Trilogy'' is a 1988 American

comedy-drama film Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

adapted by

Harvey Fierstein Harvey Forbes Fierstein ( ; born June 6, 1952) is an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for his theater work in '' Torch Song Trilogy'' and '' Hairspray'' and movie roles in '' Mrs. Doubtfire'', ''Independence Day'', an ...

from his play of the same name. The film was directed by Paul Bogart and stars Fierstein as Arnold,

Anne Bancroft Anne Bancroft (born Anna Maria Louisa Italiano; September 17, 1931 – June 6, 2005) was an American actress. Respected for her acting prowess and versatility, Bancroft received an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, two ...

as Ma Beckoff,

Matthew Broderick Matthew Broderick (born March 21, 1962) is an American actor. His roles include the Golden Globe-nominated portrayal of the title character in '' Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' (1986), the voice of adult Simba in Disney's ''The Lion King'' (1994) ...

as Alan,

Brian Kerwin Brian Kerwin (born October 25, 1949) is an American actor who has starred in feature films, on Broadway, and television series and movies. Life Kerwin was born in Chicago and raised in Flossmoor, Illinois. He has three siblings: Anne, Dennis, a ...

as Ed, and Eddie Castrodad as David. Executive Producer Ronald K. Fierstein is Harvey Fierstein's brother. Fierstein created the role of Bertha Venation Wanting to highlight the work of

female impersonator A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have usually been gay men, and part of ...

Charles Pierce. Broderick originally refused the role of Alan because he was recuperating from an automobile accident in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

Tate Donovan Tate Buckley Donovan (born September 25, 1963) is an American actor, comedian and television director. He is known for portraying Tom Shayes in ''Damages'', Jimmy Cooper in '' The O.C.'', and the voice of the title character in the 1997 Disney ...

was cast, but two days into the rehearsal period Broderick had a change of heart and contacted Fierstein, who fired Donovan. Although the play was over four hours, the film was restricted to a running time of two hours at the insistence of

New Line Cinema New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after ...

, necessitating much editing and excisions. The time period the film covers is several years earlier than the time period of the original play.

Plot

* ''1971'': Arnold (

), a New York City

, meets Ed (

), a bisexual schoolteacher, and they fall in love. Ed, however, is uncomfortable with his sexuality and he leaves Arnold for a girlfriend, Laurel. * ''1973–79'': During Christmas, Arnold meets the love of his life, a model named Alan (

). They settle down together, later spending a weekend with Ed and Laurel in the country, where their relationship is tested but endures. Eventually, they apply to foster a child together with a view to adoption, and their application is eventually successful and so they move to a bigger apartment. However, on their first night at their new home, Alan is killed in a

homophobic attack Gay bashing is an attack, abuse, or assault committed against a person who is perceived by the aggressor to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT). It includes both violence against LGBT people and LGBT bullying. The term covers vio ...

. * ''1980'': Months later, in the spring of 1980, Arnold's mother (

) comes to visit from

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, but her visit leads to a long-overdue confrontation. Arnold's mother disapproves of Arnold's homosexuality and his planned adoption of a gay teenage son, David ( Eddie Castrodad), as well as Arnold's use of their family burial plot for Alan. They have a series of arguments where Arnold demands that she accept him for who he is, insisting that if she can't then she has no place in his life. The following morning, before she returns to Florida, they have a conversation where, for the first time, they seem to understand each other. With both David and Ed (who is now more mature and settled) in his life, and a successful new career creating his own stage

revue A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own dur ...

, Arnold's life is finally complete.

Cast

as Arnold Beckoff *

as Ma Beckoff *

as Alan Simon *

as Ed * Karen Young as Laurel * Eddie Castrodad as David *

Ken Page Ken Page (born January 20, 1954) is an American actor and singer. Page created the role of "Ken" in the original Broadway production of '' Ain't Misbehavin, and played the role of " Old Deuteronomy" in both the original Broadway and filmed st ...

as Murray * Charles Pierce as Bertha Venation * Axel Vera as Marina Del Ray

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for ''Torch Song Trilogy'' was released on the Polydor label on LP, cassette, and CD on December 8, 1988. The album charted on the jazz charts of industry magazines '' Billboard'' and '' Cashbox''. The song "This Time the Dream's On Me" sung by

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...

, which is used several times throughout the film including over the closing credits, was excised from the planned soundtrack album by

Norman Granz Norman Granz (August 6, 1918 – November 22, 2001) was an American jazz record producer and concert promoter. He founded the record labels Clef, Norgran, Down Home, Verve, and Pablo. Granz was acknowledged as "the most successful impres ...

, Fitzgerald's long-time manager, when he invoked a contractual clause which gave Fitzgerald the right to refuse her material to appear on an album featuring another artist (known in the music industry as a "coupling clause"). In actuality, Granz was unhappy with the money offered by the record company, PolyGram Records (now part of Universal Music), for the use of the song in the film and refused permission for its inclusion on the album out of spite. Original music by

Peter Matz Peter Matz (November 6, 1928 – August 9, 2002) was an American musician, composer, arranger and conductor. His musical career in film, theater, television and studio recording spanned fifty years, and he worked with a number of prominent ...

and contemporary pop tunes such as Rod Stewart's "

Maggie May "Maggie May" is a song co-written by singer Rod Stewart and Martin Quittenton, and performed by Rod Stewart on his album '' Every Picture Tells a Story'', released in 1971. In 2004, ''Rolling Stone'' ranked the song number 130 on its list of ...

" were used in the film, but not contained on the soundtrack as its producers, Larry L. Lash and Matz, felt they broke the overall "torch song" theme of the album. The track listing is as follows: # "'S Wonderful" –

Count Basie Orchestra The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 195 ...

, Joe Williams # "Dames" –

, Nick Montgomery, Robert Neary,

, Charles Pierce, Axel Vera # "But Not for Me" –

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop s ...

# "Body and Soul" –

Charlie Haden Charles Edward Haden (August 6, 1937 – July 11, 2014) was an American jazz double bass player, bandleader, composer and educator whose career spanned more than 50 years. In the late 1950s, he was an original member of the ground-breaking ...

Quartet West # "Svelte" – Harvey Fierstein # "Skylark" – Marilyn Scott # "I Loves You, Porgy" – Bill Evans # "Can't We Be Friends?" –

Anita O'Day Anita Belle Colton (October 18, 1919 – November 23, 2006), known professionally as Anita O'Day, was an American jazz singer and self proclaimed “song stylist” widely admired for her sense of rhythm and dynamics, and her early big band app ...

# "Love for Sale" – Harvey Fierstein # "What's New?" – Billie Holiday

Home media

''Torch Song Trilogy'' was released on VHS in 1989, and on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

in May 2004. The DVD version contains an audio commentary track by actor and writer Harvey Fierstein.

Reception

''Torch Song Trilogy'' was generally well received by critics, with reviews from ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'', '' Time Out'', Roger Ebert and

Janet Maslin Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...

all praising the film. It holds a 75% score on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

based on 20 reviews. Janet Maslin from ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' wrote “Like ''La Cage aux Folles,'' ''Torch Song Trilogy'' presents a homosexual world that any mother, with the possible exception of Arnold Beckoff’s, would love. Greatly shortened from Mr. Fierstein’s long-running, Tony Award-winning play, the film version emphasizes the lovable at every turn, but the surprise is that it does this entertainingly and well.” Roger Ebert commented “As written and performed by Harvey Fierstein as a long-running stage hit, it was seen as a sort of nostalgic visit to the problems that gays had in the years before the horror of AIDS. The movie has more or less the same focus, but because it’s a movie, it becomes more intimate and intense.”

Awards and nominations

At the 1989

Deauville Film Festival The Deauville American Film Festival (french: Festival du cinéma américain de Deauville, link=no) is a yearly film festival devoted to American cinema, which has taken place since 1975 in Deauville, France. It was established by Lionel Cho ...

, director Paul Bogart was nominated for the Critics Award and won the Audience Award. The film was also nominated for Best Feature and Fierstein was nominated for Best Male Lead at the Independent Spirit Awards that same year.

References

External links

* * * {{Paul Bogart 1988 films 1988 comedy-drama films 1988 LGBT-related films American comedy-drama films American LGBT-related films Cross-dressing in American films Films directed by Paul Bogart LGBT-related films based on actual events Films set in New York (state) Films set in the 1970s Films shot in New Jersey Films shot in New York (state) Films shot in California LGBT-related comedy-drama films Films about LGBT and Judaism 1988 comedy films 1988 drama films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films