The analogy with tennis comes to mind as, as a viewer, we move our heads to the left or right depending on how the dynamic flows between the actors, a group of humans trying to defend their identities in an intimacy embraced by the 70s.
The title of the work, Torch Song, refers to that romantic and hurt song that narrates an impossible love, a love never consummated because the various vicissitudes of life prevent it from materializing. It is, in a certain sense, what happens with Arnold Beckoff who usually falls in love with men in conflict, as happens with Ed, an indecisive university professor.
(Courtesy. )
In the midst of the love conflict are Laurel and Alán, two characters who pose a kind of love opening and an apparently progressive dialogue about relationships, a bit atypical for the seventies discourse. There is an unexpected twist and now the dramatic tension is focused on the visit of the peculiar mother Beckoff and a possible adoption.
I will stop the review at this point to avoid possible spoilers and I will focus on the origin of this story written and originally starring the playwright Harvey Fiersteincelebrated for the libretto of musicals The Cage of the Mad and Kinky Boots. The first theatrical version premiered in 1982 and six years later it had a film version under the direction of Paul Bogart and with performances by Fierstein himself, Anne Bancroft, Matthew Broderick, Brian Kerwin y Eddie Castrodad. In 2018 he had his revival on Broadway starring Michael Urie.
