Manhattan Theater Club to Stage New Fierstein Play on Broadway

Charles Sykes/SYKEC, via Associated Press Harvey Fierstein

Harvey Fierstein, who won Tony Awards for best play and best actor in 1983 for his landmark gay drama “Torch Song Trilogy” but has mostly written musical scripts since then, has a new play coming to Broadway for the first time in nearly 30 years. “Casa Valentina,” a ’60s-era portrait of a Catskills vacation resort where heterosexual men would dress up and act as women, will begin previews on April 1 at Manhattan Theater Club’s Samuel J. Friedman Theater and open on April 23, the theater company announced on Monday.

The Tony-winning director Joe Mantello (“I’ll Eat You Last,” “Take Me Out”) will stage the play, which is inspired by the Chevalier d’Eon resort (also known as Casa Susanna) and actual events. Casting for the ensemble work will be announced later.

Mr. Fierstein most recently wrote the books for the Broadway musicals “Kinky Boots” and “Newsies” and was nominated for Tonys for each. He also won Tonys in 2003 for best actor in the musical “Hairspray” and in 1984 for best book for “La Cage aux Folles.” The last new play by Mr. Fierstein had produced on Broadway was “Safe Sex,” which ran for less than a month in 1987.

According to Monday’s press announcement from Manhattan Theater Club, the play’s setting “was paradise for these men - white-collar professionals with families - to spend their weekends discreetly and safely inhabiting their chosen female alter egos. But when faced with the opportunity to become an official organization, these ‘self-made women’ had to decide whether public recognition would help them gain a place in open society or spell their own personal disaster.”

Manhattan Theater Club is producing the play in association with Colin Callender, Robert Cole, Frederick Zollo and the Shubert Organization, who helped Mr. Fierstein develop it.