Mrs. Santa in Drag at Thanksgiving Parade
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ag_2&printer=1
By CHAKA FERGUSON, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - The annual Thanksgiving parade is famous for its giant balloon caricatures, but Mrs. Santa in drag may be drawing the second looks this year.
In lighthearted support of a recent Massachusetts high court ruling favoring gay marriage, actor Harvey Fierstein — Broadway's most famous drag queen — will dress as the Mrs. Claus while riding downtown on a float.
Fierstein, star of the Broadway musical hit "Hairspray" and an openly gay three-time Tony Award winner, wrote an op-ed piece in Wednesday's New York Times promoting his planned homage to Mrs. Claus during Thursday's parade.
Fierstein, who was not immediately available for comment, 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. In the musical, Turnblad is the protective mom of a plump Baltimore teen who yearns to be popular.
Macy's issued a statement saying the parade "has never and will never be a platform for political and social issues and opinions."
Top
