GLAM-ROCK SPECTACLE
All eyes will be on Neil Patrick Harris doing a number from Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the Tony Awards,
When the Tony Awards go to air on CBC on Sunday, there’s one place in particular where they people be watching the show intently.
It’s the retirement home in Colorado Springs, Colo., where John Cameron Mitchell’s 81-year-old mother, Joan, will watch Neil Patrick Harris, in full glam-rock drag, do a number from her son’s musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
“All of them are having a Tony night party,” laughs Cameron on the phone from his Manhattan home. “My mother knows what she’s in for, but as for all the rest of them? It’s not on their radar now, but it sure will be on Sunday.”
Their reaction is something you could ask Mitchell about when he comes to WorldPride celebrations in Toronto to take part in the Mattachine Dance Party at the Gladstone on June 19 and host the sing-along screening of the Hedwig and the Angry Inch movie at TIFF Bell Lightbox on June 24.
Hedwig the musical is nominated in eight Tony categories — the second highest number of nods this year — including Best Revival of a Musical and Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical.
That would be the performance of the much beloved Harris, better known until recently as the star of How I Met Your Mother, now carving out a whole new reputation in fishnet stockings, spike heels and a notto-be-believed wig.
Harris has hosted the Tonys several times to great acclaim, but he’s returning that job to Hugh Jackman this year, so he can perform a number from Hedwig and wait breathlessly backstage to see if he wins. (Spoiler alert: he’s the odds-on favourite. Sorry, Ramin Karimloo)
Although he originated the role himself in 1998 off-Broadway, and later played it in the cult 2001 film version, shot in Toronto, Mitchell is thrilled with Harris’s interpretation of the story of the East German youth from 1970s Berlin who undergoes a botched sex-change operation (hence the title) while trying to keep her GI husband. “Neil is indefatigable,” enthuses Cameron in that sweet, breathy voice that still maintains the twang of his Texas origins. “I’ve never seen someone so game. He’s like Evel Knievel. ‘I want the heels higher, I want the microphone cable longer. I want an extra show a week. Let’s make it harder!’ Boy, that wasn’t me. I wanted to make it as easy as I could.
“But he’s outdone all expectations. He’d never done drag, he’d never done rock ’n’ roll, but he’s reinvented himself totally. People who only knew him from TV come out of the theatre saying, ‘ That’s Doogie Howser?’ ”
Mitchell admits he would never have foreseen the show’s sell-out smash Broadway success when he created it.
“Coming there was something we never dared dream of before because Broadway was so conservative. And now it’s a giant hit. I know the show hasn’t changed, but people’s attitudes about gender and sexuality have changed so rapidly everywhere.”