Aenean finibus sit amet urna quis volutpat. We still haven’t met in person.”, With the album completed and volume two in the works, Mitchell says: “A couple of publishing companies have been in touch with concerns about it being a benefit album. Nulla condimentum purus id risus cursus consectetur. Now, for its first-ever Blu-ray release, Mitchell’s cult art house indie is rocking a digitally remastered, hi-def makeover. Every second. I’m not a ‘cancel culture’ person. And indeed, The CW series found a way to integrate every song into its mysterious and utterly weird storylines about the goings-on in their fictional town. And the person reading out the names of the dead is trans Drag Race star Peppermint.”. To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories. Need to catch up? Donec id nisl laoreet, lobortis est nec, luctus eros. “You know, depressed in a bath and singing into my iPhone. Phasellus finibus turpis odio, eleifend bibendum ex convallis in. This is all cabaret baby, relax. The new release, he said, “means it will last after we’re gone, and that’s really beautiful to me.”, When Mitchell shot the film nearly two decades ago, he was making a queer fairy tale—the rare entry in the LGBTQ canon that was not a documentary, or a gay manifesto, or a trans statement, though some have interpreted it as falling into one of those categories. Sign up for our daily Hollywood newsletter and never miss a story. Kevin is organizing the school variety show, but Principal Honey informs him he won’t be allowed to do a number from Hedwig like he planned. Hedwig was created out of necessity, as an exploration of Mitchell’s feelings on sexuality—before language around gender had evolved to the point it’s reached in 2019. Criss says that the heart of the story — its universally relatable sense of heartbreak and loss  — is at the core of its popularity. And then of course everything stopped. But I actually thrive in isolation.”. But Jughead is still wondering if the VHS tape voyeur is out there somewhere… and later, he receives the most disturbing video yet: someone in a Jughead mask getting his head crushed with a rock by a Betty-masked attacker. (“Barchie” fans, are you still breathing at this point?). They’re both a little guarded when they go back to Jughead and Veronica. Jughead and Archie sing the highly appropriate “Wicked Little Town” from Hedwig and the Angry Inch, soon joined by the full cast, and while Betty is pushing Jughead to catch up on his classwork so he can graduate on time, he sneaks over to Charles to offer help researching the VHS tapes. reserved.PMC Entertainment. While Mitchell agrees New American Dream is “definitely an album about right now”, he stresses that “there are love songs here also”. The diversity of his film’s fan base is apparent when Mitchell does live Hedwig commentaries or stops along the Origin of Love Tour he’s embarked upon with Stephen Trask, which will hit the Town Hall in New York from June 27-29 for an exclusive Pride celebration. in the process. Twenty-two years ago, Mitchell and his collaborator Stephen Trask created Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the game-changing gender-fluid glam-rock musical that became a defining text for the 21st century’s gender non-conforming community. Thorgy Thor from RuPaul’s Drag Race added violin, Eleanor Norton added cello and we suddenly had something to work with.”, Financially stable thanks to his central role as an acerbic magazine editor in the hit TV show Shrill, Mitchell decided that “we should just keep doing this as a benefit album for the three causes closest to my heart: a trans justice group, an African American scholarship programme and this Covid food bank in Mexico City, which has been helping sex workers and migrants who are afraid to go to the other food banks.”. Hedwig has also found new life, of a sort, in Mitchell’s latest project: a 10-episode musical podcast on Luminary about a desperate artist named Ceann Mackay who crowdfunds treatment for a brain tumor. Brilliantly innovative, heartbreaking, and wickedly funny, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH is the landmark musical by John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask that is “groundbreaking and undoubtedly ahead of its time” (Entertainment Weekly). One said, ‘What if it’s a hit?’ I’m like, ‘Have you listened to the songs? — as Principal Honey glares at them from the crowd. Netflix Sets Theatrical & Streaming Date For David Fincher Black…, ICM Partners Acquires Stellar Group to Expand Soccer Footprint, 'Mank' First Trailer: Netflix Unveils David Fincher's…, BMG Eliminates 'Poisonous,' 'Anachronistic'…, These Great Turkey Fryers Will Help Make Your Thanksgiving a…, Copyright © 2020 TVLine Media, LLC. A number of the songs on the album were inspired by the current political, financial and human rights crises in the US including Segarra’s forlornly beautiful American Sickness (“How did it come to this? Donec non rutrum turpis. Hedwig, the rock musical that featured the music and lyrics of Stephen Trask and book by John Cameron Mitchell, will be the core story component in the April 8 … Hedwig’s release in the early aughts also worked in its favor, as indie films were then still a booming art form. “Not the freaks, but the sweet freaks,” he said. Praesent in tortor varius mauris blandit blandit. On this current tour he’s been performing the heart of the musical’s soundtrack, “The Origin of Love”—a song he plans to “keep singing till I croak.”. In 2001 he directed himself in the Hedwig movie; in 2014 an updated musical revival sashayed to the Broadway stage, making Mitchell feel like a “proud parent.” It won four Tonys and featured a rotating cast of Hedwigs that included Neil Patrick Harris, Darren Criss, Michael C. Hall, Andrew Rannells, Taye Diggs, and Mitchell himself—making for the most lucrative version of Mitchell’s story. Hedwig has also found new life, of a sort, in Mitchell’s latest project: a 10-episode musical podcast on Luminary about a desperate artist named Ceann Mackay who crowdfunds treatment for a … “In a way we had to do a fictional one to avoid the clichés that real people fall into.”. Mitchell’s been surviving alongside Hedwig since the ’90s. From the awards race to the box office, with everything in between: get the entertainment industry's must-read newsletter. Betty ends up at Archie’s, and since they’re both fighting with their significant others… they reminisce about the good times they had together as kids before singing “The Origin of Love.” And then they kiss! Nam odio sapien, porta sit amet laoreet sit amet, feugiat eget lectus. Mauris tempor ultrices lorem, ut ullamcorper mauris. Tony and Olivier Award nominee Euan Morton will star as Hedwig and Hannah Corneau will play Yitzhak in the National Tour of Hedwig and the Angry Inch beginning November 29th in San Diego. To revisit this article, select My⁠ ⁠Account, then View saved stories. By Included among the Criterion release’s extras is a new sit-down with members of the cast and crew, including Mitchell, cinematographer Frank G. DeMarco, composer-lyricist Stephen Trask, hairstylist and makeup artist Michael Potter, animator Emily Hubley, actor Miriam Shor, and visual consultant Miguel Villalobos. “It’s about the joy of trying to do something,” says Mitchell. As for Hedwig’s own origin story, it lives on through amateur and professional productions worldwide—and, of course, through the film’s latest incarnation. If you like TVLine, you'll LOVE our weekly newsletter. During their warm reunion conversation, they reflect on Mitchell as Hedwig, including when he shaved his eyebrows (they only ever partially grew back, said Mitchell: “My makeup and hair person will never hear the end of it”) and the scene where Hedwig wears a heart shirt previously sported by Cameron Diaz in Charlie’s Angels. He hasn’t seen either Rocketman or Bohemian Rhapsody—two fact-based musical dramas about real queer icons—because “reality isn’t always dramatic.” By nature of being concocted out of his imagination and fragments of outré idols like Bowie and performance artist and playwright Ethyl Eichelberger, Hedwig also dodges the “boring ‘hits rock bottom’” trope that mainstream audiences seem to eat up, Mitchell said: “Everyone knew Bohemian Rhapsody was gonna suck. “If I was coming up now in high school, I’d identify as nonbinary/trans just to free myself of that so-called binarchy,” the director said, adding that “labels should be about freedom as opposed to tying people to another set of rules”—an idea he believes Hedwig represents.