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Video: Harvey Fierstein Responds to Special Tony for Lifetime Achievement
Jun 9, 2025
Earlier tonight at the 78th Annual Tony Awards, Harvey Fierstein took the stage to accept a special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement. After leaving the stage at Radio City Music Hall, he checked in with BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge to share his initial reaction!
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0:00
It's a big deal, this beautiful award that you got
0:02
They made me cry. They made me cry. I said to Aaron, I said, it's one thing to get a standing ovation when you come in, but when you leave
0:11
I said, that's like, okay, we're done with you. Go. Go. This is really special
0:17
Tell me, like, tonight what it meant to being up there and just making your beautiful speech
0:21
It's hard. It's hard because, you know, when I wrote the book, I figured, okay, I've now dealt with everything
0:28
I've put it out there. I can now leave the past behind. And then you get this one, you go, oh, I have to go through it again
0:34
Because as I said in the speech, what touches me most is the idea that my journey has meant something to people
0:44
You know, it's not just I enjoyed your show, but you changed my life in some way
0:49
And that's a heady thing. That's a big thing to think about
0:54
So there was a lot of that. And now I can go home and walk the dog
0:59
Because that's what you do. This is a lifetime for the theater. You've spent your whole life working in the theater
1:04
dreaming of being in the theater, changing the theater. What that all means to you
1:08
Well, I didn't dream of changing it. It just had to change because I wasn't going to change
1:14
That's sort of the way that worked. It was I wasn't going to change, so it's going to have to change around me
1:21
And that's been wonderful. I mean I remember actors being asked if they wanted to be a replacement or whatever and how hard it was for them to say I don know I don know if I ready to do that
1:39
A lot of actors that we now think of as gay icons
1:44
were in the closet then. It was really an amazing change, but now we're at war
1:52
Now we're actually at war. We have a political system that is looking to erase us
1:57
is taking our names out of the libraries, out of theaters, off warships
2:03
I mean, they want to erase us. There's a whole bunch of people that have been, their anger has been released
2:09
And what's so funny to me is these are the people who would say to you
2:15
that they're Christian, you know, and full of love, and that this is about love and all that
2:22
But they're motivated by hate. It's all hate. There's no love there
2:28
There's like, we hate you. You're not like us. We hate you. And I wonder, did you leave the love on Sunday
2:37
On Sunday morning, that's when the love happens, and the rest of the week, you're hateful human beings
2:43
It's really hard to imagine, but that seems to be where we are, so we're at war
2:49
If anybody can help us move forward through that, it's you and so many millions of others because of you
2:53
We've been there before, and we'll do it again
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