To be perfectly honest, we never totally loved Hedwig and the Angry Inch. But maybe the involvement of enchanted pixie Neil Patrick Harris can change our minds. Did we mention he takes his shirt off?
In an interview with the NY Times, Neil talks about his childhood love for musical theater, inspired by a traveling production of Annie. The video is required viewing, as it features a clip of the young actor singing in a dream sequence on Doogie Howser.
Now he’ll be hitting the stage as Hedwig, in full sexy drag. It hasn’t been totally easy: apparently drag queen friends have been needed to coach the cast on posture and delivery.
“Thankfully there’s lots of drag examples right now,” Neil says, pointing to Drag Race and Dallas Buyer’s Club (which, eek, maybe don’t use that as your model).
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He’ll have big shoes to fill, as John Cameron Mitchell’s character is as iconic as, say, Charlie Chaplin or Indiana Jones. There’s simply no one else who could be that Hedwig, so he’ll have to discover a new approach to Hedwigging. Here’s the Times interview; we also recommend hopping over to Netflix to watch his episode of Murder She Wrote (alas it comes during the series’ misguided period where Jessica lived in New York).
Uisce
And herein lies the problem. Hedwig is not a drag show. It is a glam rock rock opera about someone who happens to be post-op. I cringe at the notion of them giving it the Kinky Boots treatment.
dougmc92
I LOVE LOVE LOVE Hedwig….sorry- I just don’t see Neil in that part- he’s talented, but I don’t think he has the grit- they’ll probably give him the Tony just for all the past hosting jobs he’s done for them.
ScaryRussianHeather
@Uisce:
That’s not what he said. It’s going to be difficult enough for him to use the stage convincingly as a rock performer let alone deliver the two hour monologue. As a long time post op woman singing while wearing multiple compression garments in heels.
He’s referring to Jinkx Monsoon, a trained theater actor, who’s worked in drag every day of his life for ten years. Having already starred in Hedwig twice last year, who better to coach him in the practical AND artistic challenges? He also worked for his alma mater Cornish College as an instructor in vocal/dialect.
What he left out is, Jinkx was recruited by John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask during his run off Broadway in his show The Vaudevillians.
http://www.broadway.com/buzz/172819/hedwig-field-trip-neil-patrick-harris-john-cameron-mitchell-visit-jinkx-monsoon-in-the-vaudevillians/
balehead
he is just fugly now….