There’s a lot of disagreement, at least in the online commenting world, on whether or not this is inspired casting.Because anybody who knows anything about NPH or Hedwig realizes that this is a match made in heaven.
I saw the original Hedwig and the Angry Inch when it was at Jane Street, although I missed author John Cameron Mitchell's run in the title role. But it's thanks to an interview he gave to Terry Gross on Fresh Air that I decided to take myself and my then-boyfriend - who loved the show - to see it.
My daughter, who still resents me for not taking her to see the off-Broadway run, is ecstatic about the Broadway production with NPH and what I'm worried about is that it will be so huge we won't get tickets.
I did take her to see the movie version but it's not the same.
And I'm not complaining about the actor I saw who replaced Mitchell, Michael Cerveris, who is actually a more accomplished actor than Mitchell, and speaking of whom, is now in another show I want to see, Fun Home, based on the work of Alison Bechdel, of Bechdel Test fame.
I also think this is absurd:
...a hard-edged show like Hedwig doesn’t exactly have the family-friendly subject matter that the biggest hits on Broadway feature. (This year’s Tony winner for Best Musical was Kinky Boots, to be fair, but that drag queen-fused musical featured songs about accepting and loving yourself and others. Hedwig, on the other hand, features a song about a botched gender-reassignment surgery.)What? Does this writer know nothing? The time has surely come for Hedwig - and with NPH it's going to be huge.