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Bella Bella  By  cover art

Bella Bella

By: Harvey Fierstein
Narrated by: Harvey Fierstein
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Publisher's summary

Four-time Tony Award® winner Harvey Fierstein takes on New York City’s very own political firebrand, Bella Abzug, in his new raucous, heart-rending, and absurdly humorous solo show. Set in 1976, on the eve of her bid to become New York State’s first female senator, Bella Bella finds this larger-than-life, truth-slinging, groundbreaking, hat-wearing icon squirreled away in the bathroom of a midtown hotel awaiting that night’s election results while a coterie of family and celebs await her entrance. Directing is Kimberly Senior (The Niceties).

©2020 Harvey Fierstein (P)2020 AO Media LLC

Go Behind the Scenes of Bella Bella

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Our favorite moments from Bella Bella

"Welcome to Bathroom Politics!"
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"Women make up the majority of the voting population."
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"But I can dream..."
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  • Bella Bella
  • "Welcome to Bathroom Politics!"
  • Bella Bella
  • "Women make up the majority of the voting population."
  • Bella Bella
  • "But I can dream..."

About the Creator and Performer

Harvey Fierstein is an American actor, playwright, and voice actor. Fierstein has won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his own play Torch Song Trilogy and the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for playing Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. He also wrote the book for the musical La Cage aux Folles, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical and Best Lead Actor in a Play. He also garnered Tony nominations for Best Book for Newsies, Best Book for Kinky Boots, and Best Play for his play Casa Valentina. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2007.
Fierstein has also had a successful career in film and television. He played Robin Williams’s brother in Mrs. Doubtfire, voiced a character in Disney’s classic animated feature, Mulan, and wrote and voiced the lead in his own children’s feature, The Sissy Duckling, for which he won the Humanitas Prize for Children’s Animation in 1999. He also won a News and Documentary Emmy Award for narrating the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk. Fierstein starred in Martin Sherman’s Gently Down the Stream at the Public Theater this past spring. Currently, his play Torch Song is playing on Broadway.

What listeners say about Bella Bella

Average customer ratings
Overall
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Story
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  • 2 Stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

loved every minute!

Bronx boy, married to strong woman leader loved and identified with Bella and this reading captured her perfectly.

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13 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

I loved it! Fun hopeful ride full of spunk!

First person retrospective from a woman with a point of view she is heaven bent on sharing! quick. funny. heartwarming. heartbreaking. full of hope.

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11 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I remember Bella

Awesomeness! Harvey Fierstein did an amazing performance delivering his historically accurate accounting of events in such a way I loved. Times then, were turbulent, much like today. A warrior and activist, like Bella Abzug, is surely needed now. I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking truth, justice, and the American way.

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10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
  • BB
  • 08-09-20

Couldn't Keep My Interest

Starts off a little slow but then becomes interesting. I lost interest before it was over though but listened all the way through. Even though it was short, it should have been shorter. If this was 15 or so minutes shorter, my rating would probably be higher. It just ran a bit too long for the content in the story. It started to feel repetitive to me. Overall, it was ok. Nothing spectacular but not awful either. Worth a listen during a commute.

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9 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Not my thing.

I didn't understand who the narrator of the story was. Was he portraying a woman? Was he a male friend of a woman narrating on her behalf? I just didn't understand what was going on. Probably my own issue but I didn't get it.

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Ugh

Man hate in the extreme...performed by a man. Ridiculous waste of time. I’ll have to listen to something else right away to get that nasty voice out of my head. Only redeeming quality was the Yiddish, that was good- sadly disappointed.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent Performance

This is one of the best hours I've spent since we have been confined because of civil. I fell in love with Bella and Harvey has always been one of my heroes. A ++

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Insightful and Immensely Entertaining

We need more Bella’s. She was proud to take on the men rather than become one! Ethics needs to be respelled BELLA!

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

excellent

Very well written and performed excellently. Entertaining and very educating too. Make more! ok thanks

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

More realistic than Mrs America

While a more accurate portrayal of Bella Abzug than Margo Martindale’s in “Mrs America”, that still doesn’t make it revelatory or enjoyable.

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5 people found this helpful