HERE COMES THE MUSIC
FOR THE THIRD ANNUAL MUSICAL EPISODE OF ‘RIVERDALE’, THE STARS ARE SASHAYING DOWN THE SCHOOL’S HALLWAYS IN HEELS, PUTTING THEIR OWN SPIN ON ‘HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH’
There aren’t many towns that can say they’re home to multiple killers, a rocket-building cult leader, a bearfighting teenager and … whatever you’d call the Blossoms. And yet, Riverdale is somehow still full of surprises. “I never thought I’d see that many wigs in a hallway,” Casey Cott (Kevin Keller) says of the coming Season 4 musical episode (on Netflix on Thu., Apr. 9), in which the teens of Riverdale High take on Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the story of an East German genderqueer punk rocker.
Admittedly, it’s a less obvious choice than the show’s two previous musical episodes, which tackled Carrie: The Musical and Heathers: The Musical. “We asked, ‘What cult musical set in a high school haven’t we done?’, ” says showrunner Roberto AguirreSacasa. “Grease is a high school musical. West Side Story is about high school students. But none of them felt right.” Then Stephen Trask’s name popped up. The composer, who wrote the music for Hedwig, offered to write music for the drama, but Aguirre-Sacasa took things one step further and decided to bring Hedwig to the series. “When you have a song called ‘Wicked Little Town’, it’s describing Riverdale,” explains Aguirre-Sacasa.
Unlike the last two musical specials, Hedwig isn’t a school production. Rather, the students perform numbers from the musical as part of a variety show. Specifically, when Mr Honey (Kerr Smith) tells Kevin he can’t put on Hedwig, the teen “rebels in a very, very glittery way”, says Cott.
With Kevin in the title role (and fishnets), his classmates join him – some in heels and others in a new band. Yes, The Archies are coming to Riverdale! The iconic group from the comics features Archie (KJ Apa), Betty (Lili Reinhart), Jughead (Cole Sprouse) and Veronica (Camila Mendes), and alongside special guest star Kevin, they perform ‘Midnight Radio’ from Hedwig.
And, indeed, that means Jughead is singing. Sprouse’s love for Hedwig was the final sign for the writers. Says AguirreSacasa: “For Cole to be like, ‘I want to sing’, it was like, ‘We have to do this.’ ”