 Fierstein to Play Mrs. Claus in Parade
NEW YORK - New York's annual Thanksgiving parade is famous for its giant balloon caricatures, but Mrs. Claus in drag may be drawing the second looks this year.
Harvey Fierstein (news) — Broadway's most famous drag queen — will dress as Mrs. Claus while riding downtown on a float in Macy's famous parade.
Fierstein, star of the Broadway musical hit "Hairspray" and openly gay, wrote an op-ed piece in The New York Times Wednesday promoting his planned homage to Mrs. Claus.
The 49-year-old playwright-actor wrote that "to the delight of millions of little children, the Santa in New York's great parade will be half of a same-sex couple."
"And guess who the other half will be?" he asked. "Me! Harvey Fierstein, nice Jewish boy from Bensonhurst, dressed in holiday finery portraying the one and only Mrs. Claus."
Fierstein will appear as his "Hairspray" character, Edna Turnblad — but dressed as Mrs. Claus — on the Percy and the P-Birds float, a group of penguin puppets.
"I'm not doing the parade as a political statement," he said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday. "I'm doing the parade because it's the most fun I can possibly have in the world."
Macy's issued a statement saying the parade "has never and will never be a platform for political and social issues and opinions."
Department store spokeswoman Elina Kazan said the traditional Mrs. Claus will ride with Santa on his sleigh as part of the parade's grand finale Thursday. She called Fierstein's alternative version "Edna's interpretation of Mrs. Claus."
Fierstein said he had grown up watching the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. "When they asked me to be in it, I was so thrilled," he told the AP.
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Actor Harvey Fierstein, from the Broadway show 'Hairspray,' wears women's clothing for his arrival to the 45th Annual Grammy Awards, in this file photo of Sunday, Feb. 23, 2003, in New York. In lighthearted support of a recent Massachusetts high court ruling favoring gay marriage, Harvey Fierstein _ Broadway's most famous drag queen _ will dress as Mrs. Claus while riding on a float Thursday, Nov. 27, 2003 in New York's Macy's Thanksgiving Parade. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File) |
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Actor Harvey Fierstein (news) gives the okay sign while dressed in drag as Mrs. Santa Claus during Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York, November 27, 2003. Fierstein, Broadway's moat famous drag queen, appeared as his 'Hairspray' character, Edna Turnblad. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton |