Newsies Scribe Harvey Fierstein Believes 'Life is Short and Hard' and Needs to be Celebrated

The morning the Tony nominations are announced, phones start buzzing with texts and calls for the happy few who get nods. As usual, Broadway.com is among the callers offering congratulations and getting responses. Here are the first reactions from 2012 Tony nominees. Congrats to all!

Harvey Fierstein
Nominated for Best Book, Newsies

"Tomorrow morning is the gang bang [Tony nominee brunch]. The nice part of being the book writer is I can go lie down [after the brunch] and they have to go do two shows. I let the phone tell me [about being nominated]. I knew somebody might call me if we got nominated. So Richie Jackson called and I was able to congratulate him and Jordan [Roth]. Then, of course, I looked at the list and began with the, ‘How could they…!? Why didn’t they…!?' Well, I only had two of those really bad. My Dick Latessa, my darling husband [from Hairspray] and then my darling son (sometimes lover, sometimes son) Matthew Broderick [Torch Song Trilogy]. Life is really short and life is very hard, I think you celebrate everything that’s worth celebrating. I spend as little time on the downside of life as possible and the most time celebrating as allowed. I was raised by Jerry Herman—I believe in ‘It’s Today.’ How will I celebrate? I’ll go over to Alan Menken’s, so we’ll celebrate for a little then I’m teaching a friend to make chili tonight. We’ll have a chili party."

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