Hedwig: Best Present Ever (and U Can Haz, Too!)

Iain surprised me Saturday night with tickets to the American Theater Company's production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, one of my favorite, favorite things (as many of you already know). It was remarkably wonderful.

Nick Garrison (Hedwig) is stunning; I can't imagine there are too many people who can inhabit the role of Hedwig so fiercely that I never once, not for a single moment, thought about John Cameron Mitchell, or made any comparison, until the show was well over. Sadieh Rifai (Yitzhak) is every bit as good. They, with the band, tell the enormous story of Hedwig on an improbably small stage, and the intimacy of the space creates a powerful, electric energy that rises and withdraws with Hedwig's passion and pathos.

The show is running through the end of the month (it just got extended), and if you are anywhere remotely near Chicago, get tickets if you can. You won't be disappointed. In a total coincidence, Todd and C. attended the later show the same evening, and they positively adored it, too.

If you can't get to Chicago, but would like to support a small theater that showcases important, norms-challenging work like Hedwig, and, beyond that, runs an education program which "partners with local schools to develop students' literacy skills, so that they can give voice to their own stories of American life," you can donate here. Teaspoons!

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