Indeed, pride manifests in Torch Song not as a feeling to be celebrated once a year but as a routine practice, a strength that Arnold and all queer people must regularly conjure in order to keep going in a world that is often hostile to their existence.    

Harvey Fierstein’s original iteration of Torch Song was actually three separate one act plays that premiered Off-Off-Broadway in consecutive years starting in 1977. The first was entitled The International Stud, which followed Arnold Beckhoff, a Jewish drag queen living in New York, searching for his “international stud.” He meets Ed Reiss, a bisexual teacher who struggles with what exactly he is searching for in life.