HEDWIG ALERT! After 500 triumphant shows, 6 Hedwigs, and 4 Tony Awards, Hedwig is putting her wig back on the shelf. pic.twitter.com/G6Lpw68VBx

— Hedwig on Broadway (@HedwigOnBway) August 18, 2015

WE WERE THERE: TAYE DIGGS IN

HEDWIG & THE ANGRY INCH

https://twitter.com/ashleymariap7/status/633023361052975104

Still reeling from how incredible @HedwigOnBway was today. @TayeDiggs was phenomenal and brought a whole new side of our girl to life.

— Allie (@alliesweezy) August 16, 2015

Including former Hedwig, Neil Patrick Harris,

Saw @TayeDiggs tonight in the truly wonderful production of @HedwigOnBway. Sad that the show is closing soon. If you've yet to see it, do.

— Neil Patrick Harris (@ActuallyNPH) August 19, 2015

While Diggs will be donning his awesome wig and pair of golden boots until the end of the Broadway show, fans of the show can raise their hands for the tour scheduled to begin in San Francisco on October 4, 2016. Diggs closes out Hedwig and The Angry Inch with panache, raw emotion and sizzling hot energy. And as Hedwig would say, that’s not bad for a “slip of a girlyboy from Communist East Berlin.”

For more information on Hedwig and The Angry Inch, the tour and ticket information, click here.

The post Taye Diggs Closes Out Hedwig and The Angry Inch On Broadway appeared first on Broadway Black.

If the July 22 opening night was any indication, with a thunderous standing ovation by the audience, Hedwig producers have found one of the best performers for the multi-Tony winning show. When it officially opened in April 2014, Neil Patrick Harris had the title role – for which he won a Tony. He was followed by Tony nominee Andrew Rannells, Golden Globe winner Michael C. Hall, John Cameron Mitchell, who is the Hedwig playwright (along with composer & lyricist, Stephen Trask), and Darren Criss (Glee).

Diggs now has become that proverbial first Black person to be such and such. But a first it is.

Via Instagram (@tayediggsinsta), the film and television star – who debuted on Broadway with Carousel (1994-95) and went on to appear in Rent – stated Hedwig is his most challenging role he has played. Challenging because of the high heels, the crotch shorts, the German accent, the rocked out vocals. Maybe. Perhaps, more so, the tinge of hopelessness that speaks to trapped bodies amid intolerance.

Been quite a trip. @Hedwigonbway

A video posted by Taye Diggs (@tayediggsinsta) on Aug 7, 2015 at 10:38am PDT

Most challenging thing I’ve had to do work-wise. @hedwigonbway A video posted by Taye Diggs (@tayediggsinsta) on Aug 7, 2015 at 10:46am PDT

#DiggsHedwig My brain is random. @hedwigonbway

A video posted by Taye Diggs (@tayediggsinsta) on Aug 13, 2015 at 1:27pm PDT

Well, it is a long way from the “ultimate acting challenge” of Diggs’ Julliard graduate character “Sean James” who had to transform into a ghetto lovin’ kidnapping gangsta in the satirical Malibu’s Most Wanted (2003) alongside the Anthony Anderson character “PJ” – straight outta Pasadena Playhouse. Just a moment… I had to do a simultaneous LMAO and SMDH for even mentioning that Jamie Kennedy film right now. But as I think about it, maybe it is appropriate. The film’s tagline was: Ever feel like you didn’t belong? (it was about a privileged White guy who longed to be something he wasn’t – “the biggest rapper that ever was”).

In a time when movements exist for Black lives to matter and LGBTQ rights to improve, it’s not surprising that Diggs would be chosen to portray the genderqueer role and to continue the mission of blurring lines between male and female, straight and gay, Black and White. There is a lot of not belonging nowadays, a lot of searching for right and wrong. Diggs, in an interview with New York Times Magazine, said: “Since I was a kid, I’ve been trying to wean myself off of seeings things as right and wrong and black and white and good and bad.”

When Hedwig opened Off-Broadway in 1998, it served as a statement for freedom and self-acceptance: an East German singer, once known as Hansel, assumes a female persona after a botched sex change operation in order to marry an American man and escape a communist country. After as many as 857 performances plus a 2001 award-winning film adaptation, an anthem persists. Mitchell has explained that Hedwig is meant to be a queer voice as opposed to a transgender voice. “She’s forced into this (sex change) operation… it’s not a choice,” he stated. “Hedwig doesn’t speak for any trans community because she was… mutilated.” He described the character as “more than a woman or a man.” “She’s a gender of one, and that is accidentally so beautiful.”

Diggs as “Hedwig” is no accident, and it definitely is beautiful. A son of artistic parents (his mother an actress and teacher, his father a visual artist), the 44-year-old sex symbol has been preparing for such a role ever since his 1998 film debut How Stella Got Her Groove Back. His Twitter (@tayediggs) bio simply states: “I’m serious chocolate and don’t get it twisted.” Need I say, chocolate is good for you.

Mitchell – who has compared each Hedwig, beginning with Harris, to a comic book superhero (Superman, Black Widow, Iron Man, Professor X and Spiderman) – has yet to don Diggs an alias. Dare I call it… Black Panther. Diggs, who has said his favorite movie is Pretty Woman, will be in high hair and glitter glam through October 11 at Belasco Theatre. Visit hedwigbroadway.com for more information.

The post Taye Diggs On Hedwig: My Most Challenging Role appeared first on Broadway Black.

The way my high school history books were written, every single one of those historical figures was white. Manuel did something here. He could have maintained historical “accuracy.”  However, this musical wasn’t about that. He threw out the typical format and hired people of color to fill these roles and guess what? It didn’t matter. Hamilton became an instant hit and no one is criticizing it for its colorblind casting because it’s just that good. The actors make these characters believable regardless of their skin color. What Manuel wanted to create was art, and art doesn’t have a race. It has an impact.

I remember going to see Keke Palmer in Cinderella back in 2014, looking around the theatre, and being brought to tears. I cried because I saw hundreds – and I’m not exaggerating — of young Black girls in tiaras and pretty dresses in the theatre. They were there to see Keke and to experience theatre, some for the very first time. And there was a Black girl playing the princess on the stage. I was so overcome with happiness and joy because it was so important for them, and me, to see. When I was leaving the theatre, a little girl said, “Mommy, I want to do that!” And she can!

What if this could happen all the time? I know we have shows like The Color Purple and Motown, which have no choice but to cast Black actors. However, those shows come and go (that’s another article, for another time). What I’m talking about is something a little different. Oftentimes when I’m catching a show on Broadway, I rarely see faces of color on the stage in lead or featured roles. Sure, I usually can spot them in the ensemble or they may be the understudy, but where’s our full-time Black Elphaba? Does Captain Hook have to be white? Aren’t there Black LGBTQ youth too? Black people go to Paris, right? I’m sure there are tons of Black girls and boys that never want to grow up, so where is their Finding Neverland?

There’s a term in theatre and film called “non-traditional” casting. That term is basically code for non-white actors. For the life of me, I’ve been trying to figure out why they call actors of color “non-traditional.” Are our stories and lives not “traditional?” Do we lack a certain trait to make us “traditional?” What does this even mean?

The answer is something I’ve been trying to discern but, at this point, I don’t think it matters. In the past three years I’ve seen more actors of color in roles that for so long have been cast with predominately white actors. Taye Diggs as Hedwig? Norm Lewis as The Phantom? Condola Rashad as Juliet? Even Trip To Bountiful, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Cat On A Hot Tin Roof cast all Black actors during their Broadway runs. When I see that, it’s a great feeling. My question, then, is why doesn’t it happen more? Is it so far off to believe that as people of color we, too, can live these experiences?

I say these things with a spirit of hope, as I was once a young Black girl attending the theatre. I know the impact of seeing actors on stage that look like you. I also know what it feels like to be automatically ruled out of a role based on the color of your skin. Even now as a Performing Arts teacher, I want to be able to take my students to shows where they can look at that stage and turn to me and say “Ms. Harper-Davis, I’m gonna do that.”

Yes, scholar. Yes, you will.

UPDATE: ***In the featured photo: All black cast of “Oklahoma!” at Portland Center Stage from 2011. A fantastic cast and production, and one of their best selling shows ever. In the photo are Jarran Stepney-Muse as Will Parker and Joy Matthews as Aunt Eller

The post Hamilton To Hedwig: When “Non-Traditional” Casting Becomes Traditional appeared first on Broadway Black.

The press has started to ramp up in anticipation of Diggs’ debut as Broadway’s first black Hedwig. Diggs has handled it all with an air of grace that is only known to him.  The press has not been known for their “gentle touch” when it comes to issues of race and sexual orientation but they seem to have put on the kid gloves this time.  When Diggs was asked on “Entertainment Tonight” about how his son was reacting to him in this role, he had this to say,

“[Walker] is so damn adjusted. He’s unfazed. I think he’s on the path of being a really cool adult.”

Rebecca Naomi Jones took over the role of Yitzhak in Hedwig in April 2015, as we reported here.  She has been the husband to Glee star Darren Criss’ Hedwig but now will be in support of the first Black man to take on the role.  The two sat down recently at The Labs Club Restaurant to talk about being the first “chocolate” husband and wife duo for these roles and the flavor they are bringing to these characters.

Taye Diggs will take over the role on July 22, 2015 at the Belasco Theatre, 111 W. 44th St. New York, New York 10036. For ticket information visit Theatremania.com 

The post First Look: All Black Hedwig With Taye Diggs & Rebecca Naomi Jones appeared first on Broadway Black.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch tells the story of a fictional rock ‘n’ roll band, fronted by internationally ignored song stylist Hedwig, a transgender woman from communist East Berlin. Between rock songs, Hedwig regales the audience with stories about her life, including her botched sex change operation and her relocation to Kansas.  The Broadway production of Hedwig, with a book by John Cameron Mitchell and music and lyrics by Stephen Trask, opened in April of 2014 with Neil Patrick Harris in the title role, and won Best Musical Revival at the 2014 Tony Awards, the Drama Desk Awards, Drama League Awards, and Outer Critics Circle Awards. Previous Hedwigs include John Cameron Mitchell, who wrote the play and originated the role, Neil Patrick Harris, Andrew Rannells, and Michael C. Hall. Hedwig currently stars Darren Criss, perhaps best known for his role on FOX TV’s Glee. Criss departs the show on July 19 and Diggs will begin his stint on July 22.

“Taye is fantastic—he has theater cred, he has pop culture cred, he can sing, he can act, he can dance, he’s smart and he’s sexy,” said lead producer David Binder. “That’s why we cast him.” Diggs’ recent work has included both film and television work, and he is currently in production of season 2 of the TNT crime drama Murder in the First. Diggs last appeared on stage in the 2005 Off-Broadway revival of A Soldier’s Play.

The post Taye Diggs is the Next Lead in Hedwig and the Angry Inch appeared first on Broadway Black.