To those hung up only on image and resume — Fierstein has played two drag roles on Broadway, penned the libretto to gay-family-friendly La Cage aux Folles and has been a vocal gay and AIDS activist for years — the casting of zaftig, gravel-voiced Tony Award-winner in the "Tradition"-al paternal role of Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof might indeed sound a little funny.

But then, some have argued that the current revival of the smash musical about evolving traditions in a Russian Jewish shtetl could use a little more "funny" following Alfred Molina's thoughtful, grounded — and valid — interpretation of the role. When Fierstein steps into the show at the Minskoff Theatre in January, audiences are expected to flock to it for the curiosity factor — what will Harvey bring to it? Fierstein will draw on all of his powers as a performer to play what may be a career-changing role for him.

On Nov. 10, it was confirmed he would join Fiddler. The next day was the first preview of the new Broadway production of La Cage aux Folles. Following a La Cage production meeting Nov. 11, he spoke to Playbill On-Line outside the stage door of the Marquis Theatre, which affords a view of the marquee of the theatre across the street — Fiddler on the Roof.

PLAYBILL ON-LINE: You must be thrilled. Tevye is one of the great roles in musical theatre.
Harvey Fierstein: It's an iconic role, there are very few Tevyes in the world. It's a role that requires everything that an actor can keep in his arsenal: You've got to do standup comedy — y'know, there's direct address to the audience; there's regular monologues — because he talks to God, which is a whole different thing; you've got to do real comedy with other actors; and then you also have to, at the same time, switch into the reality of a family life, which is basically what the play's about, and deal with the family relationship — a wife and five daughters. On top of that you've got the philosophical side of what's going on in Fiddler: "Does God give a flying f--- if we live or not? Does he care?"

PBOL: Has it been observed before that his relationships to his oldest three daughters, who marry non-traditionally, is analogous to a parent dealing with their gay kids?
HF: I come to this material with a lifetime of baggage that should fit quite well: Being brought up Jewish, in a conservative Jewish household; the rabbi lived across the street; and then having a parent have to deal with having a gay son is, as you say, analogous to marrying outside the faith. There's a lot there. I certainly have friends who have married outside the faith; my brother married outside the faith. There is nothing in this that is not relevant to my life experience, so I better be f------ good.

PBOL: The writing in Fiddler reflects universal things in our lives, in our families...
HF: There are moments in Fiddler that I have actually ripped off in my writing career, even in La Cage aux Folles. At the end of La Cage aux Folles, Albin the drag queen/mother has finally arranged for the kids to get married, and they grab her and say, "Thank you mama, thank you mama, thank you mama!," which is right from Fiddler: "Thank you, papa! Thank you, papa! Thank you, papa!"

PBOL: You steal from the best.
HF: Well, I don't actually call it stealing — it's an "homage." [Laughs.] There are a couple of lines that the mother says in Torch Song that are very close to what goes on in Fiddler. When a piece is as great as Fiddler is, when the writing is so perfect that you don't even know where it came from, it is a gift to every audience. Each audience is hearing those lines for the first time, though so many of the lines have become part of the language. Since the [casting] announcement came out, I walk down there street and people go, "Harvey Fierstein on the roof! Sounds crazy, no?" Everyone knows the opening lines of Fiddler. My father used to sing "Sunrise Sunset" at my bar mitzvah, at my brother's.... If you're a New York Jew, especially, this stuff is in your blood. I don't wanna make this sound like the heaviest thing in the world, but I am very honored that they would even think of coming to me.

PBOL: You said you saw the original Fiddler with Zero Mostel when you were 10 years old. Who took you?
HF: I can't exactly be sure whether my brother and I went on our own... My parents sent us to the theatre every weekend — either to the theatre, to a museum, a ballet, a ball game. Most times, we went as family, but sometimes just my brother and I.

PBOL: It's must be a little weird for two new projects to come together like this in the same week.
HF: And right across the street from each other! I'm standing here at the stage door of La Cage and I'm looking at the sign that says "Alfred Molina in Fiddler," and Alfred Molina just came walking by one way and four drag queens go by the other way...

PBOL: Jerry Herman said you tweaked the book to La Cage a little bit.
HF: Oh yeah, I had a lot of fun. It ain't Shakespeare, you know? I said, "If we're gonna sit through this show as many times as we're gonna have to, we might as have something new to look at." [Laughs.] I did write some new jokes just to keep us amused, and I put a couple of lines back in that they wouldn't let me have in the original [in 1983] because they were too scared of it. You wouldn't even notice now. The book writer of a musical does things that people don't know we do: You can have a scene change that takes a long time, or a costume change, so they come to the book writer and say, "OK, fill three minutes in here." I was able to cut a bunch of that stuff, which I was thrilled to cut. There were a couple of actors cast that I just adore — I'm not playing favorites, I won't tell you who — but I wrote new material for them. It is a respectful, traditional production of La Cage and yet it does have some new fun elements.

PBOL: And the show is set today, in 2004?
HF: It's not set anytime. When I was hired [20 years ago], the show took place in New Orleans! I said, "Are you crazy? You do it in New Orleans and you have to worry about the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, and what year it is..." We put it in St. Tropez and you forget what year it is. You can dress them in '40s clothes, '50s clothes, mix it up, make it '80s. It doesn't matter, it's St. Tropez — the magical land of St. Tropez!

PBOL: I would think that La Cage could equal or double its 1,700-plus original performance count given that gay people and gay culture is so much a part of the mainstream these days, in the age of "Will & Grace." Culturally, we're so different than in 1983.
HF: You know, it's kinda scary, but it's not different. When the [gay father characters in La Cage] are talking about Anne's father belonging to a political party, they say, "He's the deputy general of the TFM." "What's the TFM?" "The Tradition, Family and Morality Party." I think that could have been written this week. The Tradition Family Morality Party? It sounds like I just wrote it. When this loving couple is out in public on the Promenade, and everyone treats them as another couple — they're a successful business couple — Georges starts singing to Albin. When he puts his hands on him, he says, "Please, Georges, we're in public view." Even in New York City, two men who might have been together for 40 years walk out on the street touching each other, and people will stare. As far as we think we've come, we haven't. Yet, we have come — because nothing moves backward.

PBOL: There has been talk in recent years of a revival of Torch Song Trilogy...
HF: We were sort of hoping, we sort of had a plan. We had a cast almost put together, then it sort of fell apart. The hard job is to find the right people and do it. I don't wanna just throw it up. [Producers] have offered to put it on, but nobody's come to me with the right cast. There are producers who want me to do it. I said, are you crazy? This is a play about a guy who starts out at 20 and ends at 30. It's much too important those be the ages. That's the right age — it's about first love.