It’s a role he was born to play — in fact, he wrote it.
Harvey Fierstein, one of the last of the bankable Broadway stars, will join the cast of “La Cage aux Folles” as Albin, the high-strung drag queen.
Fierstein, who won a Tony for his book for the popular musical, will step into Albin’s pumps after Valentine’s Day, replacing the formidable Douglas Hodge.
“Doug is so brilliant — having to follow him is scary,” says Fierstein. “But the thing about ‘La Cage’ is that they’ve been sending me checks all these years while I’ve been sitting at home. And so now they’re pulling me off the bench.”
Fierstein, 58, wrote “La Cage” 30 years ago.
“I was too young to play the part then, and now I’m too old. I’m going to have to get Elaine Stritch‘s wheelchair.”
(Stritch is being wheeled around the stage of the Walter Kerr as Madame Armfeldt in “A Little Night Music.”)
Hodge’s co-star, the excellent Kelsey Grammer, is likely to leave the show in February as well, so the hunt is on for a new Georges.
Mike Myers is said to be in the mix.
“La Cage” won the Tony for Best Revival this year and has since been doing steady business. It’s one of the few bright spots in an otherwise lean fall, in which many shows are fighting to stay afloat.
Fierstein should keep the box office humming this winter during his 12-week stint.
He was a huge draw as Edna in the original cast of “Hairspray.” And he turned the struggling 2004 revival of “Fiddler on the Roof” into a hit when he succeeded Alfred Molina as Tevye. He toured with “Fiddler” last year, receiving raves and breaking box-office records.
For “La Cage,” he says, “I’m going to have to get myself back into corsets. You know, I haven’t played a drag queen since ‘Torch Song Trilogy’ ” — the 1982 play that made him a star.
“Edna was a woman. In ‘Catered Affair’ I played a closeted gay man who was not a drag queen, and Tevye — well, nobody knows what goes on under his [tallis], but I don’t think it was a bra.”
David Babani, a “La Cage” producer, hit on the idea after attending focus groups at which theatergoers said they loved Fierstein.
“Whenever they asked these nice ladies in the focus groups who they’d like to see in this role, I always came out as No. 1 — over some very big stars,” Fierstein says. “I guess I have some sort of identification with it. Possibly because I wrote it. Ha!”
He’s already tailoring some of the jokes to his personality.
“There’s a couple of lines I don’t like, so I’m going to call up the writer and have him fix them. I’m rewriting Fierstein, which is a terrible thing to do to him, but I can always say I spoke to the playwright, and he’s OK with it.”
As for the singing, Albin has one of composer Jerry Herman‘s signature songs — the anthemic “I Am What I Am” — and Herman is very particular about how his songs are performed.
“Frankly, I can’t imagine I’m Jerry’s dream casting,” Fierstein says. “He loves to have his songs beautifully sung. I called him up and said, ‘Honey, I ain’t got Merman’s voice, but I got her pipes, so you know that they’re going to hear every one of your lyrics!’ “
LILY Rabe returned to “The Merchant of Venice” over the weekend after taking last week off to be with her mother, Jill Clayburgh, who died Friday.
During Sunday’s curtain call, Al Pacino left the stage, returning with a bouquet of flowers bigger than he was. When he presented them to Rabe, she burst into tears.
“But she pulled herself right back and took her bow,” says a source.
Her father, playwright David Rabe, was in the audience, cheering through his tears.
NINA Arianda, who appeared in off-Broadway’s “Venus in Fur,” and Chase Finlay, a dancer with New York City Ballet, yesterday received the inaugural Clive Barnes Awards. Named after The Post’s legendary drama and dance critic, who died in 2008, the awards celebrate emerging actors and dancers.
Two of Clive’s favorites — Cherry Jones and Frederic Franklin — introduced the winners, who each received $5,000.