Playwright and actor Harvey Fierstein stopped by Seth Meyers’ late-night show Tuesday to talk about his new book, I Was Better Last Night.
Fierstein is known for his pioneering play Torch Song Trilogy and his Broadway roles in Hairspray and Fiddler on the Roof, as well as his film performances in Mrs. Doubtfire and Independence Day. A critic for Kirkus called his book “a poignant, clever, and entertaining look at an impressive, unique career.”
“You are a man who is full of great stories, and yet you just wrote your memoir,” Meyers asked Fierstein. “What was the delay, and what made you decide to do it?
“‘Cause I cleared my desk during Covid, and I did the laundry, and I had nothing to do,” Fierstein said to laughter from the audience. “And my agent said, ‘Why don’t you write a book?’ and I said, ‘OK.’”
Fierstein said the first story he wrote for the book was a recounting of his role in a school production of Sleeping Beauty when he was in second grade.
“They made me play the king,” he recalled. “And I didn’t want to play the king, ’cause all he got was a Reynolds Wrap crown and a bedspread that you had to drag behind you. But my friend Philomena Marano, she played the evil witch, and she got green skin and red lipstick. And we went to the penny candy store and got her those long black nails. I wanted to play the evil witch so bad. So bad.”
I Was Better Last Night was published Tuesday by Knopf.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
