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NPH Has Arrived! Chatting with the Company of HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH on Opening Night!
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Nov 9, 2022
Neil Patrick Harris officially returned to Broadway last night at the Belasco Theatre, in the new production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the musical with book by John Cameron Mitchell and music and lyrics by Stephen Trask, directed by Michael Mayer and featuring Lena Hall. BroadwayWorld's Richard Ridge was at the after party to chat with Harris about his return to the stage; Mayer about getting the musical ready for Broadway; Mitchell about seeing a new company in action, and much more!
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge. For Broadway World, four-time Emmy Award winner Neil Patrick Harris
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has returned to the great right way in the Broadway premiere of the John Cameron Mitchell
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Stephen Trask musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Under the direction of Michael Mayer, it co-stars Lena Hall
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And I'm here on opening night where I caught up with the company. So you guys made it to Broadway
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You made it to Broadway with Hedwig. I know. After all these years, I've had a long journey with it
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Tell me what it's been like finally doing this, Michael, for Broadway. Well, for me, it's been deeply gratifying
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because I started working on it so many, like 15, 16 years ago
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Maybe even more. It was 1995. You do the math. That's a long time ago
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And it wasn't fated for me to direct it ultimately in its initial incarnation
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So the fact that it came back to me was, you know, kind of a miracle
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And the fact that we all wanted Neil Patrick Harris to do it, and then he agreed to, and they all agreed to wait
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I said, let's wait, you know, until he's free from his TV show. And we all sort of got on the same page and said, yes, it's worth waiting for him
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So all the elements came together to create this perfect storm of a great collaboration with him
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And also to have Ariane Phillips and Mike Potter, who both did the film
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And Mike Potter did the original production. And Kevin Adams, who's my dear, dear friend and most frequent collaborator, was the original lighting designer
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And so he's come along, too. and then to bring new, wonderful talent like Julian Crouch and John Baer and Ben Piercy
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It's been like a great fusion of the old school Hedwig and new school Hedwig
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That must have been really cool. You started working with these guys 18 years ago, and you sort of brought the family, mixed it with the new family
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and said, let's make the best Hedwig. Yeah, well, let's make the new Hedwig. Let's make the new Hedwig
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The other Hedwig was pretty damn great, I think. I loved it. But it's got to be different if it's going to be in a Broadway house
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And I think we came up with a really fun way of explaining how Hedwig got to Broadway, you know, for one night only
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And it all just seems to work. And Neil and Lena have fantastic chemistry, I think
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And the band is tight. You know, Stephen Trask put this band together
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They didn't ever play together, but you feel like they've been together for years and years
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They're fantastic. What's been the best part of this journey for you? Oh, gosh, there's so many great parts
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I think one of them is just the full circle of Hedwig, of David Binder and me finally able to do this show together
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And for me to be able to collaborate with John and Stephen on their beautiful work
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And the other great thing is to be able to bring Neil Patrick Harris back to Broadway where he belongs
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to finally work with him, because that's something the two of us have wanted to do for quite some time
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and to also watch him give a career-redefining performance. It's thrilling to have been a part of that
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And then there's the audience. I was here on a Monday night. It was sold to the third balcony
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It was like a Saturday night rock concert. That is like here every single night
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How does that make you feel as a director? There's nothing better than to have a packed house
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every night of people loving the show and reacting so vocally to it
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because that's something that you can't get in any other medium other than theater
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You get that immediate response. And so if a joke lands and the laugh ripples through the crowd
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my favorite thing actually is those moments of silence where suddenly there's a shift in the energy and the story
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and it's like the rug gets pulled out from under all of us and we're all in that awful moment of not knowing
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what's going to happen next. That thrills me. You could hear a pin drop every night at a couple moments
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And that's, as a director, that's like, you know, really dreamy. When you were on stage tonight, taking your bow with the company, what went through your mind
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I thought, this is so crazy. You know, I can't, I actually couldn't believe it
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It was surreal. And to see so many people that I love out there in the audience giving us so much love back
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And to be able to bring the creative team out with me the way we do at the opera, you know
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You don't get to do that all the time on Broadway. And to have the whole cast and the creative team together as one on stage was very powerful
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It really was. So tell me what you thought tonight. Oh, I am so impressed that I went home and then I came back
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Because I thought I should really tell you guys what I thought. You know, it's very important that people like me, not just sort of in people, understand it
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And it was just incredibly deep in a way. especially in the end when he takes everything off
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Oh, it's incredible. And I think that this is going to be a classical American play, really
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What you thought about Neil Patrick Harris? Oh, he is so fantastic
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I mean, how much did he rehearse? Incredible, I thought. Broadway, you guys made it
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How do you feel 18 years later? I feel happy. I'm really glad that we did it, and it's bigger and better than ever
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It keeps getting better, and it's on Broadway now, so it's great. What's it been like reuniting again
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It's been great to work with my friends like Ariane Phillips, the costume designer
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and John Cameron Mitchell, and Stephen Trask. And I've never worked with Michael Mayer and Neil Patrick Harris and all the cast
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It's been incredible. I've learned a lot. And, you know, at this point in my career, I thought I knew it all
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but I, like, didn't know it all at all. So, yeah, it's good
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I'm glad. I'm happy. Taking it back to the beginning, you did every incarnation of Hedwig
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and every Hedwig in New York. I mean, almost since, like, John was doing it in the nightclubs
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and we were using toilet paper rolls and hot glue to make the wigs
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and they were falling apart. But yeah, I learned over the years and got better
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They got more songs over the years, and it became a solid piece
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and then we did the show on Jane Street, and then I did the film, and now I'm doing it on Broadway, so yeah
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What's been the biggest thrill of doing this brand-new version of this? You know, getting to work with, because John was so extraordinarily talented
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working with someone like Neil Patrick Harris because he's the real deal
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and he has a lot of respect for what I do, like hair and makeup and the costumes
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So I feel it from him and everyone feels it for Neil. So that's been the best part
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And just working with Michael Mayer and having him be like, do this, keep going, keep more
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I want more, bigger, better. And I'm like, it's fine. And he's like, no, more and better
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And I keep doing more and better. And I think it's great
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I'm really happy when I see the show now. I mean, I still am like, oh, I would change this and that
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But pretty much I'm pretty happy with everything. What was the last wig that you designed
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Well, we did the Beehive 1963, and it was like a flop because no one was clapping for it
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So then Michael was like, I want a bigger, better beehive. So I was like, well, let me fix the other beehive
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And still, it was like crickets. So I just was like, you know what? I'm going to do a new beehive
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And we did. And the first night, it was like fantastic, and everyone loved it. So Michael was right the whole time, but that was the last one that we did
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But, you know, I did these wigs for months ago, so they've been, like, rehearsing in them
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And, yeah, so it's good. So what's been the best part of the experience with working on this again for Broadway
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You know, really, honestly, getting to work with my friends again and people that I, like, literally
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I don't see Ariane Phillips, like, a few times a year and John Cameron Mitchell. And we live in the same city, John and I
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But getting to see these guys every day and Stephen Trask and just having them be around me and inspire me
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and like love me and know me for like you know almost two decades it's really I
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love it it's very exciting it's amazing fruition it's like birthing our baby and
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it just incredible it a release I really happy tonight because my family came from California my parents my sister my boyfriend everybody here and it really just amazing to share the show with friends and family and all the enthusiasm tonight
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Every night. Yes, it's been, well, for me, this is my first Broadway production and my first live stage experience
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So I understand that, I think I'm kind of ruined. It's like flying first class
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I understand this is unprecedented, the kind of applause and audience enthusiasm that we've been getting
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So I guess I have to lower my expectations after this, hopefully not
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It's like you own the plane. Yes, exactly. It's been really, really a gratifying and amazing experience for me
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And I feel so lucky to be able to come back to the material after 14 years ago having designed the film
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So it's really fun. I adore the film. So what was it like working on that and now working on the Broadway production
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Well, you know, I mean, the film is totally different because we had so many actors and it was an incredible experience for me
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It was kind of a seminal moment for me personally in my career, just about reminding myself creatively what was super important for the kind of pieces that I want to be involved in
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So moving forward and flashing back on 14 years ago, I think it really informed me on the path that I've taken based on that Hedvig experience and kind of the love and the guts and the sweat and the tears that went into it
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And flash forward 14 years later, we get to have Hedvig on Broadway
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And for me, it's really great because I'm a different designer than I was 14 years ago
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And I get to visit the material in such a different way with a new artist
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Neil Patrick Harris is so inspiring. and really a physical actor, really, really brave, really interested in costumes
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When I first met him, he said, you know, I love magic. I love illusion
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I love costumes. Bring it on. And I was just like, who are you
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It's so unusual. I mean, most actors are like, don't give me too much to do. So, you know, he had me at hello, basically
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And it's been an incredible experience. I feel really supported. This is my creative family, and I have new people that are in my family
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Michael Mayer is such a great director. and I'm a fan of his work
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So to be able to meet him, let alone work with him
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and have him be part of this initial Broadway experience for me has been really, really special
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To have Stephen Trask here, the lyricist and composer of the music
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and John Mitchell with their blessings, and they've revisited the story and the music
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and made it relevant for 2014 has been really great. So the costumes, too, had to be relevant for today and now
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So it's really, really exciting and just a dream come true. The clothes are absolutely stunning
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Could you sort of do the poor thing with the expensive thing? So tell me, what was the first costume for Hedwig you designed and what was the last
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Well, they all had to work together kind of like paper dolls because it's like a puzzle
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or like a Russian doll where there's layers and layers because Hedwig never leaves the stage
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So it's a lot of magic and quick changes and overdressing and underdressing
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I don't want to give too much away, but it's hard to separate them, but I really had to design them all as a fluid entity, and we're working on them simultaneously
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I love that answer. When you took your bow tonight on stage, Broadway debut, what was going through your mind
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Oh my god, I hope I look okay. No, vanity, I must admit, vanity. It's very unusual to be asked to be
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part of such an audience congratulations like that and to be asked to be interviewed. You know
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I took this job as a behind-the-scenes person, and I love being a behind-the-scenes person
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and I also have learned to get more comfortable with people who want to know about what we do
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and appreciate it. And I feel honored to be able to talk about costumes
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for my other colleagues, my other costume designers. And also, I just am really appreciative
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that people are interested. So tonight felt really great. It felt really amazing to be on stage with the performers
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with our director, with our creators of the material, Stephen and John, Mike Potter
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who designed the hair and makeup. So it's really a family. I mean, that's all I can say
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It's a family. How does it feel to be on Broadway? Exciting, man, exciting. because it's kind of the center of everything
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So you can do films, you can do records, you can do anything, but Broadway is kind of another thing
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It's an entity into itself, so it's exciting. Give me your history with Hedwig
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My history is I am, by trade, a record producer, and I got a phone call by somebody named Stephen Trask
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about 16 years ago, and I said, I don't know with Stephen Trask, and they said
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He knows you. We met, and it was like we knew each other all our lives
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We work on one record together. And then he said, would you like to do Hedwig with me
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It's going to be a film. And I said, yeah, absolutely. I never got to see the original production because I was working away
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So I would see these posters on the street that were just these horrible looking things
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And I would say, this is so me. I have to go see this
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But I never got to. Next best thing, I get to work on the film
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with the film we got to record it like we would record an album and they used the pre-records to
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make the film by so the film was more like an opera because they would play back what we had
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recorded in the studio and that's kind of what it was and it was great and working with people like
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Stephen and John was amazing and then I've worked with Stephen over the past you know 14 consecutive
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years on various film scores and whatnot as I continued in my record career and this has been
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bubbling under for many years about half the time we've known each other so he would say it's gonna
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happen and I would say okay great get all excited I learned not to tell my wife the third time he
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told me and then she actually said you better call Steven this is happening and I said really
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So I just texted him. I said, is it true? And he said, get your shit together
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Excuse me, Broadway. But get it together because we're doing it. We're coming to Broadway
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So from a guy like me who doesn't have any Broadway experience
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I have tons of live music experience. I've seen tons of shows
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I know what Stephen wants. I know what I wanted to hear when I went to see Hedwig on Broadway
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that it would have to be like going to a Hedwig concert
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It couldn't be sound in the background. It had to be Hedwig doing her rock concert
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Hedwig would not have quiet music in the theater, you know. That's what she's about
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I'll tell you, the sound is flawless. The mixture of instruments and rock and vocals, perfect
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What's been the biggest thrill for you with working on this? The biggest thrill for me is hearing it when it finally settles in there
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and sounds like a record or like the best concert you ever heard
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that's thrilling. That's when I don't even watch the show. I close my eyes and I just let it swim
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over me and I've been doing that every night for the past month so it's been really exciting
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So when you took your bow tonight on Broadway with the creative team and the cast and everything
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what went through your mind? Let's do this again. That's what went through my mind. Lights are good
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Audience is good. Applause is good. Let's do it again. I have seen the original 13 times with every
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Hedwig that played New York. This was absolutely thrilling. It's opening night. How do you feel
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Broadway. We're on Broadway and we're playing punk rock music with Neil Patrick Harris in drag
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So, you know, and it's the most amazing thing ever. It's like, it's a combination of things
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that really shouldn't go together and yet they do. It's like the perfect cake. It's the perfect
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cake. Yeah. Why is there bacon in this cake? Exactly right. What's it been like revisiting
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this piece and sort of reinventing it for Broadway? It been a little terrifying to revisit this because in some ways I didn know if it would work in a place this big We were in such a dive before that that became part of the show and we just didn know if it was going to work here
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But we made the music a little bigger and updated the script so it reflected the new space we were in
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and the staging is bigger and the costumes are more exaggerated and yet everything feels just exactly right
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to me like I watch it and so and I didn't know if was going to that was going to happen so it was a
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bit of a surprise and a thrill and then you have Neil Patrick Harris at the helm what that's been
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like Neil's the most detail-oriented performer I've ever I've ever worked with he he he he goes
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through word by word in this meticulous way so that um and so that he has a nothing comes out of
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his mouth that he hasn't worked through. And then he's learned how
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to do that and then make it seem spontaneous. He's moved to that spot where he can fully
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embody everything and then just let it all go. So it's just tremendous
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And then you have Lena Hall. Lena is what, you know, we just
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Lena's audition should be a YouTube video with a million hits. It was so
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just like from the moment we saw Lena, we were Our mouths were open and we just couldn't believe it
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Were you and John working on a sequel? We're working on a sequel together. Anything you can tell us
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Well, maybe he'll tell you about it. I'm working on some other things, too
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It's Hedwig Contemporary. and she's doing a kind of live Kickstarter campaign
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to raise money for an operation that she needs. And we kind of catch up with her
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and what's been going on in her life and revisit some old characters
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But it's done very differently than this. It's a bigger cast but more intimate
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That sounds thrilling. When you took your bow tonight on Broadway with this new company and the old family of Hedwig
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What went through your mind, Stephen? What went... Probably just that my legs hurt, but besides that..
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You know, it's been 17 years since... Is it 16 years since we opened at the Jane Street Theatre? and
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they had the producer director of that show built us our theater
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because we couldn't no theater would have us and so it has been so slow for us to get to the point
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of this like 16 year slow build of a few more people every year and new generations
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bit by bit until we got to the point that we can have a standing room
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only crowd every single night in the Broadway house and play punk rock music and have people go, yeah, there should be punk rock music
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on Broadway. It's just like that progression and that we didn't, we just kind of waited for Broadway
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to be ready for us. And now it feels like it is. It's opening night
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Like I was telling you, I've seen every Hedwig that played downtown from you on
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This was so incredible to watch Neil two Mondays ago. What was it like for you tonight
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at first it was nerve-wracking because the audiences famously on opening night tend to be more reticent
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they're like the suited investors and professionals and the peers and the parents
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so it gets a little nerve-wracking but it's like seeing your baby being born
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at first it's like there's a head coming out of that hole it's cresting
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and then by the end it's like in its mother's arms suckling and midnight radio is playing and I'm crying and the audience is lifting up their hands
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and we're all united again you know so it was it was a rush of emotions tonight. I'm sure looking
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back at the beginning you never assume when you wrote this because like Stephen was saying you
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guys couldn't get a theater I mean you never would be dreamed that you'd be sitting here tonight
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on Broadway. We were rejected by all the resident theaters we Peter Askin our original director
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and producer built a theater called the Jane Street Theater for us because no one else
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would have us. God bless Peter Askin. And it was tough going even from the beginning. Good reviews. The
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audiences were still silent often. And it took non-theater people to make it a hit. And Hollywood people got into
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it. And rock stars would come by. And the Broadway divas crossed with the punk rockers would
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show up you know and and then the film happened so it was like broadway we never thought about
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you know i think it was american idiot the first time i thought oh maybe we could do it because
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uh michael did so well with that and you know and so he came to our mind when we thought about it
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later and i thought about doing it but i was you know i'd done it for so long and and then the idea
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of neil came up and i was like wow you think you'd be into it because you know that's not his usual
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Metier but he was like yes and so we waited for him
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for years for the show to end we were in no rush and we wanted it to be the right
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person and we were right. What's it been like working with Neil on this, on your incarnation
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and sort of reinventing it with him? It's been great, I've been sort of trying to lay back
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more, you know, to not have the original Hedwig breathing down his neck so Michael and he were the
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real partners and I came in later and suggested things and would work on the
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script and take ideas from Neil and he would top off jokes that I started with. And then I would give him
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tips of stuff that I learned along the way to, you know, spin a joke or find a moment
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And, but it was so easy. It was so, we had a great team, some people from the film
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some new people, some people from Short Bus, you know, it was a dream team
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And then you have Lena Hall. Lena Hall, the new star. No one's ever heard of her
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I mean, people in the know know, but now she's popped. So tonight, when you were on stage taking your bow on Broadway with Hedwig
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it's an incredible mixture of the old family with the new family. What went through your mind
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What was happening? You know, I was more focusing in on the people in the cast than taking in the audience
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I was just so happy that we'd done it, that I forgot the people were there
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You know, there was an enveloping warm roar of approval. But it was just, you know, Stephen and I gave us, kissed each other during Midnight Radio
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and it was just like, you know, I also was like crying because I was so happy I didn't have to do it
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Now, Steven was mentioning, and I read in your bio, that you're sort of doing a new Hedvig or a sequel
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We're working on a sequel. We're not sure what form it's going to take, but we've done some readings
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It's a very powerful, darker story. Probably not suitable for Broadway this time, just like last time
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I'd like to do a trilogy, actually, maybe in 20 years when I'm 70, do the final
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It's opening night. How do you feel tonight? I feel amazing, and I feel so relieved
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It was really nerve-wracking for some reason. We can see almost everyone in the orchestra
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because everybody's kind of lit, and so I was just accidentally clocking all these really amazing people
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and I have a huge, huge talent crush on Sam Rockwell, and he was sitting right in front of me
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and he would look at me sometimes, and I was like, stop looking at me, I can't
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So that was really hard but amazing and I so happy that it done and we partying You are so terrific in this What it been like working on this creating this with Neil and then doing it in front of another audience
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It's been crazy. It's been a whirlwind. There's been a lot of self-discovery
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and how far I could push myself and my body to look like a man
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to act like a man, to be a man. I wanted it to be as convincing as I possibly could
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I have limitations, but I really pushed myself to try and fool the audience into thinking that I am a man, at least for the first quarter of the show
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And working with Neil is just absurd. He's so fun, and he's got an amazing work ethic, and I love him to death
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And, you know, it's not like the minute when I met him on our first rehearsal, he just put me at ease right away
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And it was, you know, it was like we had been friends for years. So it was so nice because I didn't have that nervousness of just working with some big, huge celebrity, you know, really put me at ease
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And we had a great time. And I mean, I'm kind of sad that the whole rehearsal process is over because there were some really fun things that would happen between us and John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask
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Michael Mayer. I mean, so many fun things. But at the same time, it's nice to be free of that
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and that now me and Neil really get to play. So we're not nervous. We can relax and actually
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have more fun. It's like a Broadway rock concert. I was there on a Monday night. It was packed to
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the third balcony, standing up only, screaming like a Saturday night rock concert. Every night
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what that must be like for you? It's exhilarating. I mean, I don't know what I'm going to do
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and that stuff's happening. That kind of stuff's happening. It's crazy at the end
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And it's interesting because we wear in-ear monitors and so it blocks off a lot of the sound from the audience
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And I hadn't been taking my in-ears off for the bows, so I was just not hearing anything
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So I was like, well, they kind of like the show, I guess. And then one day someone was like
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you need to take your in-ears out during the bows and just listen to the crazy screaming
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especially when they have you bow. And I was like, oh, okay. And I took them out, and it was so deafening
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and I had no idea. We live in this little sheltered world in our ears
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and it's just, it's insane. So it feels amazing, and I love it
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Steven and John talked about your audition, and Steven said that your audition should be its own thing on YouTube
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where millions of people can watch how it's done and the amazing thing you did
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Look back at that audition and tell me how incredible that was. it was you know it was something that was like a spark of creativity I knew that if I wanted to
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book this part I needed to kind of stand out and and I knew the show so I knew the tone of the show
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and I knew that they'd be cool with me kind of coming up with my own stuff there's not a whole
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lot written about the character so I took what I knew about the character and um and for my fourth
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callback, because I went in five times, for my fourth callback, John and Michael were there
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and they said to me, they said at the end of my audition, they said, we want you to come in
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we want you to never break character. The minute you walk in, the minute you walk out
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you just stay in character. We're going to improv with you. John Cameron is going to do some improv
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and then we want you to tell a story or tell a joke or read an obituary or something like that
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in character, as the character would. And so instead of looking for something, I decided that
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it would be a great idea to write my own backstory monologue in the style of Hedwig
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and tell the tragic story of my family and my life in Croatia
28:37
and then coming to America with big, huge dreams and hopes of pursuing my dream of being in a show
28:44
and my favorite show being Rent and then coming to America and seeing that Rent had closed on Broadway
28:50
and so in order to bring it back, you know, I was starting a Kickstarter fund
28:56
and doing a whole Kickstarter video to bring Rent back to Broadway for $10,000
29:02
It is brilliant. You are so brilliant to watch it. I know you and I was like
29:08
even my partner at Presence Study said, that's a man. I said, no, that's Lena. You are brilliant
29:12
When you took your bow tonight with the cast and the Hedwig family on stage
29:16
when you pulled those things out of your ears, what went through your mind? I don't even, nothing went through my mind, honestly
29:24
I was just looking around and very blank. Just congratulations, and I am the luckiest girl in the world
29:33
and I'm so thrilled to be here and grateful to them for giving me the opportunity to be this role
29:40
And I love it so much, and I'm so excited to play this out with Neil
29:45
I'm so excited to see what happens, what we do in the future
29:50
Absolutely brilliant. I was here two Mondays ago. You blew me out of the water
29:54
Nice, good. It's opening night. How do you feel tonight? I feel good. It's been a crazy journey to get here
30:01
and it's been very truncated in many ways, and it's been very lengthy in other ways
30:07
And to sit here and perform this show tonight, and Yoko Ono is there
30:14
and I'm singing about her, you know, and Sam Rockwell is in the front row corner
30:20
I almost did the car wash to Sam Rockwell. I opted out
30:25
Who knows what he would have done. But it's been just crazy fun
30:30
The crowds are great. And talk about working with Lena and the band
30:33
what that's been like, the chemistry the two of you have. Lena's just super smart as well as a rock and roll girl
30:41
She has a lot of skills in the rock and roll world
30:46
I mean, I was only really aware of her from Kinky Boots, which is a totally different thing
30:50
So I can count on her to give me the strength and the energy in a rock and roll way
30:58
You know what I mean? Because I'm not a rock and roll guy. So I can look at her and she and I have sort of a nonverbal communication where I know things are okay
31:10
And if something goes wrong, she's the one I look to. No, she's the one I yell at
31:15
Exactly. Talk about the physicality. This is a tough role to do
31:19
You're all over the place. Yeah, it's a lot. Hedwig is very masochistic, you know
31:26
She's like self-flagellation a little bit. She's traveling around. Her home is the road, she says
31:32
and she travels around following Tommy Gnosis, who's a big star, singing songs that she wrote
31:37
So the whole idea of it is that she's like almost a cutter. You know, she doesn't mind if cigarettes get burned in her palm
31:44
because it makes her feel alive, you know what I mean? And so with that, you have to kind of live in that world
31:49
So I don't mind falling down and skinning my knees and stuff
31:54
I do mind when I go too far. I do have to stop myself and go, all right, dumb guy
32:01
You have to do this seven times a week. You don't want a broken shin
32:06
My final question is when you took your bow tonight with the entire company
32:09
the old Hedwig family, the new Hedwig family, what went through your mind? I was just glad that there's another sense of completion
32:19
Not only completion that Hedwig on Broadway is now open and in existence
32:24
but that we've come full circle with John, to be able to take those bows with him in a role that he started
32:30
and now I get to sort of carry the torch on in a whole new production
32:34
but one that's getting response 16 years later. That's great. And I think that speaks to the show, which is, you know, a broken woman seeking completion
32:45
And so you have this show seeking another sense of completion. It's nice
32:49
It's beautiful. Enjoy the journey. Have the best time. Thank you. Good to see you. Thank you
33:09
Thank you
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