After six Hedwigs, two Yitzacks, and 500 performance performances, the Broadway production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch will be closing on September 13th. The announcement was made on August 18 through the production’s website and various social media accounts, which urge fans to “Lift up your hands one last time!” for John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s hit musical. It is a bittersweet moment for fans of the show, affectionately called HedHeads, who are simultaneously celebrating the show’s run and mourning its end. Trask himself weighed in on Twitter, saying that “we never had a plan past Neil [Patrick Harris, who originated the role in the Broadway production]. The rest is bonus and I’m grateful for it all.”
Hedwig and the Angry Inch won big with critics as well. The show garnered Tony Awards for Best Revival of a Musical, Best Leading Actor in a Musical (Neil Patrick Harris), Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Lena Hall), and Best Lighting Design of a Musical (Kevin Adams). The production also fared well at the Drama Desk Awards, Drama League Awards, and Outer Critics Circle Awards, echoing the awards won by the original 1998 Off-Broadway production. Since Harris, the role (along with its signature wig) has been passed on through five other Hedwigs. Taye Diggs, who was originally supposed to play the role through October 11, will continue in the role through its September 13th closing performance. Diggs has yet to comment on the closing of the show, although he and more than four hundred others have retweeted Harris’s advice: “If you’ve yet to see it, do.”
