The play’s three acts are entitled International Stud (the name of a real-life gay bar of the 1970s), A Fugue in the Nursery, and Widows and Children First. The original production of Torch Song Trilogy ran approximately four hours. Fierstein substantially trimmed the material for this revised and retitled version of the play.

A “torch song” is a pop-standard ballad in which the singer laments an unrequited or lost love. Examples include “Stormy Weather,” “The Man That Got Away,” and “Cry Me a River.” Celebrated torch singers include Edith Piaf, Judy Garland, and Billie Holiday.

Harvey Fierstein’s play was originally a trio of one-acts that were first produced in the late 1970s at La MaMa, E.T.C., the celebrated Off Off Broadway theatre. The plays were first staged together as Torch Song Trilogy Off Broadway in 1981. The show moved to Broadway’s Little Theatre (now the Hayes Theater) in 1982, going on to win two 1983 Tony Awards: Best Play and Best Actor in a Play (for Fierstein, who created the role of Arnold Beckoff). A feature film adapted by and starring Fierstein followed in 1988. This production began Off Broadway at Second Stage in the fall of 2017 and moved to Broadway, returning the play to the Hayes.