This is really 3.5, even 3.75 stars. And I don't feel like a fair assessor at all but rather someone who reads a lot of memoirs and doesn't too deeply care about the Broadway stage. While Fierstein has a conversational and intimate voice, once he hits the Fiddler On The Roof stride I struggled to maintain interest. I also think the extremely linear, each-chapter-a-year presentation has a certain impact on the reader, as opposed to a more free flowing memoir that pays more thorough attention to, and elongates, the most interesting parts of one's life. I feel guilty, because this isn't bad in any way! I was just never a theater kid per se and I was most interested in Harvey's coming of age and young artist years.