BY MICHAEL MUSTO | Based on the stage musical by John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the famous 2001 film written and directed by the star, Mitchell himself. It’s 25 years old!
To commemorate that landmark, a Hedwig tour is launching this month, featuring a screening of the movie, an in-person convo with Mitchell, an audience Q&A and, “a special acoustic performance,” with post-show meet-and-greet add-ons available. (For tickets and info, visit hedwig25.com.)
In the movie—as in the show–Hedwig is an “internationally ignored song stylist” who suffers two major mishaps. Tommy Gnosis, her mentor and collaborator, steals Hedwig’s material and becomes a gigantic star. And even more traumatically, Hedwig has had forced gender reassignment surgery, which was botched, leaving her with “the angry inch” (also the name of her band), as they all trail Tommy on tour while fuming out some sort of rock concert version of an autobiography.
The result now, as always, is subversive, wry, and even touching, as seen through the lens of the beleaguered Hedwig. In anticipation of Pride, John Cameron Mitchell—who’s currently working on a theater project with the band My Chemical Romance, spoke to me in March about his 25-year-old love child. He was on Broadway at the time, starring in Oh, Mary! before Maya Rudolph took over.
Happy Pride, JCM! First of all, how is it playing Mary Todd Lincoln in Oh, Mary!? Exhausting?
It’s not as hard as Hedwig because I don’t have to sing and dance and it’s not as long. It’s challenging my nearly 63-year-old body–but it’s Broadway!
Well, you DO sing at the end—not to give anything away.
It’s not really a spoiler. But it’s at the end, when I’ve been screaming the whole time. [laughs] But it’s going great and people are really into it. They let me do my own version. It’s like the Hello, Dolly! of today.
But more integrated.
Anybody–any gender, race, age. The line that kills is when I tell the acting teacher, “I’m far too old to play Juliet.” He’s like, “Not for the sake of an acting exercise.” I’m like, “Thanks. That one really hit.”
Can you believe Hedwig is 25?
I wish I was 25 years old, but then I’d be an idiot. I’d be Gen Z and I’d be terrified and hiding in my bedroom with my phone.
[Laughs] What will the 25th Anniversary Movie Tour be like? A screening, a Q&A, and…
I’m generally doing a little acoustic set and, conditional on the venue, I’ll do what I call “a stoned director’s commentary,” where I sit on the stage and turn the volume up and down and comment while getting slowly drunk or stoned or whatever.
Sort of like Mystery Science Theater 3000?
Exactly. But more personal. “Look at that ass! Always document your ass at age 30.” Or “I remember when Andrea Martin farted in that scene.”
Priceless! Will this show/movie always define you and your career?
Yes, and I’m very happy for that to be the case. If that is my flagpole, then I’m very happy. That’s the one that broke through in a way that was unexpected. You remember. It was a little show that had no hope of being on Broadway because Broadway had no drag or punk and couldn’t handle it. At the time, we were confined to downtown and had a great time. It was only in the teens that Broadway was open for business and the same was the film; It was a bit of a flop, originally. Marketing involved comparing it to something already successful and there was nothing to compare it to. It found its way through DVDs. Friends passed it along, like, “You’re gonna like this. Don’t show it to your mom.” It even found its way into countries that had banned it.
Couldn’t it have been compared to The Rocky Horror Picture Show?
They did try to do that because there was not enough else that was gender bendy, but it was a different tone. I’m happy to be in that pantheon of glam draggy movies. But it’s a different thing. Rocky Horror is more camp. Hedwig is more realistic. I love Rocky Horror and its message, but Hedwig is the story of trauma and recovery, and you can also get some philosophy, with the Plato and the Gnostic Christianity, and a love story. The show became a big cultural thing in Korea and Japan. And it finally made its way onto mainland China! I don’t think the movie would be welcome there. They actually have more problems with the sexual element than any political statement. They’re kind of prudish.
Or queerphobic? Anyway, I think trans issues are treated with more of a scalpel today than way back then. Do you ever get flack for what you created?
There was an interesting moment at the height of cancellation. A production was attacked in Australia in ‘21. Hedwig was played by a cis guy—a TV star named Hugh Sheridan—and a young activist, a 19-year-old non-binary kid, went online and said it has to be a trans actor. It was ill-advised. Is Hedwig really the problem here? Hedwig is about trauma. It’s not a trans awakening story. It’s about someone forced into an operation to escape political slavery [i.e., to leave East Germany]. It’s simplistic to call it trans. The character was on a gender journey, but it was interrupted by abuse. And anyone can play Hedwig. If you want to be consistent, you should cancel the whole thing because I’m not trans. Those activists just wanted to play the role.
The actor tried to kill himself. There was an Australian 60 Minutes episode about it. It was decrying a kind of rats-in-a-cage kind of cancellation. We’re all queers here. There’s no need to kill our friends when we know who the real fucking enemy is. It took something like fascism for people to stop attacking other queers, to settle on the litmus test of purity and identity. While we’re beating up on our friends, look who wins. Yes, it comes from true grievances and people being hurt, but we’ve got real work to do.
Totally agreed. How did you avoid Hollywood taking this project over and saying, “We’re going to get Tom Cruise?”
It was too weird to Hollywoodize it. The story of the operation and the drag. Tom Cruise wouldn’t want to do it. And it’s not something you can adjust to work for a mainstream audience, so we were free of Hollywood intervention because it was so unique and bizarre. You couldn’t just slightly shift it. So even though there was a lot of interest from mainstream directors like Tim Burton and Forest Whitaker, Bob Shaye from New Line had directed me in something [Book of Love] and said, “I want you to direct this, even though you’ve never directed before. You should go to the Sundance Lab.” He really trusted me. I think today, it would not be made. Nor would Shortbus [Mitchell’s 2006 erotic comedy/drama film].
Did you learn on the job, while directing?
The Sundance Lab is indispensable, and we had an incredible cast—Miriam Shor, Andrea [Martin]. I was more interested in the directing than the acting. I kept forgetting I had to go back on camera. I was having so much fun behind the camera! We shot it in Toronto. I even shot it on weekends, illegally. Crew members came in for free to my apartment on the weekend. We broke all the rules and made something we’re extremely proud of. Like my child who never dies.
We had developed it at Squeezebox [a weekly drag rock party at NYC’s club Don Hill’s]. I watched these drag queens like Misstress Formika and Sherry Vine. Sherry taught me how to tuck. I was the baby. Our first gig was a half-hour exciting, terrifying moment. I was starting to be accepted by the sisterhood. I remember Woodstock ’94—a revival of the legendary rock concert–wanted Hedwig. I thought they were saying “WIGstock.” [laughs] The other queens said, “We have to be in it too.”. So, to show solidarity, I didn’t do it.
Speaking of solidarity, is it easy for you to watch other people play Hedwig?
It is, but not because I’m tired of it. I don’t want to run and see everybody, but when I do see people who have new ideas, it’s great. It’s like Mama Rose in Gypsy. She might want to perform, but “I love my daughter.” I love it. I’m proud of Mason Alexander Park, who was a standby for Hedwig on Broadway and on tour and played Mary in London, and last night, I met Catherine Tate [the British comedy figure who’s currently playing Mary in London]. It’s a sisterhood of Hedwigs and Marys. That’s my favorite thing. We can all play Mary and Hedwig!
For information about—and tickets to—-the Hedwig 25th Anniversary Movie Tour, visit hedwig25.com.
MICHAEL MUSTO | Musto is a columnist, pop cultural and political pundit, NYC nightlife chronicler, author, and the go-to gossip responsible for the long-running (1984-2013) Village Voice column, La Dolce Musto. His work appears on ChelseaCommunityNews.com, W42St.com, and other sites. Follow Musto on Instagram, via @michaelmusto.
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