Broadway is no stranger to men in drag (think Kinky Boots, Cabaret, and, soon, Casa Valentina). Broadway is no stranger to men in drag (think Kinky Boots, Cabaret, and, soon, Casa Valentina). But it has certainly never seen anything quite like the rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The transgressive, transformative, transgender title character first stomped onto the underground scene in the late 1990s, the surly brainchild of John Cameron Mitchell. Creating not only the singing, dancing, wisecracking East German ingenue, Mitchell played her in off-Broadway productions and in the cult-hit film of 2001. It was on the big screen that, along with her angry inch (so named, as she comically hisses in one song, for the proverbial chop she hastily underwent in an effort to flee East Berlin), the stubby star was born.

Ever plucky and resourceful, Hedwig has now made it to Broadway, with Mitchell trading in his wig for a producer's hat. Neil Patrick Harris dons the diva's duds, reimagined by costume designer Arianne Phillips, who originally crafted them for the film version. In addition to Hedwig's blond feathered mullet, the ultimate sight gag, her clothes—cobbled together from whatever she can salvage from her hardscrabble, socialist surroundings—are as unique, sympathetic, and fearless as she. Hedwig's wardrobe goes a long way in telling her story, in all its gritty and triumphant reality, as Phillips explains backstage at the Belasco Theatre.
POST: 2024-04-23