Torch Song Trilogy is a three-act work that tells the story of New Yorker Arnold Beckoff and his search for love, respect and happiness. The play follows the protagonist as he takes a chance at domestic life with a teacher, then goes on to an affair with a young model, all the while still struggling to deal with his mother. The original Broadway run of Torch Song Trilogy, co-starring Estelle Getty and Fisher Stevens, earned playwright-star Fierstein the 1983 Tony Award for Best Play as well as Best Actor. He reprised the lead role in his 1988 screen adaption co-starring Matthew Broderick and Anne Bancroft.

Four-time Tony Award winner Fierstein also received the honors for his current turn in Hairspray and for the book of the musical La Cage aux Folles.

Mitchell performed on Broadway in the original stagings of The Secret Garden and Six Degrees of Separation. The actor wrote and starred in the Off-Broadway staging — and his screen adaptation — of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Mitchell's spokesperson could not be reached at press time about the production which is still in the early stages.