Trivia / Hedwig and the Angry Inch

• Acting for Two: In addition to playing Hedwig, John Cameron Mitchell also dubs a reporter shouting, "Tommy, what's your relationship to Hedwig Robinson?" when Tommy is being mobbed by reporters after his car accident.
• Actor Allusion:
  • A subtle one. Yitzhak is offered the role of Angel in a production of RENT. Writer/Director/Star John Cameron Mitchell had been offered the part in the original version.
  • Beginning with John Cameron Mitchell's run in the Broadway production, it became a tradition for Hedwig to remark after licking the stage during her opening monologue that it "tastes like [the previous actor to play Hedwig on Broadway]." Darren Criss, referring to Mitchell, remarked that it tasted "aged" and "you think it goes away but it comes back"; while Taye Diggs, referring to Criss, remarked that it tasted cheesy and "could use a bit of age."
• Adaptation Sequence: Drag club act -> Off-Broadway show -> Movie -> Tour of the fictional rock band -> Broadway revival.
• Colbert Bump: Neil Patrick Harris performing "Sugar Daddy" at the 2014 Tony Awards (see the link below) got the new cast recording bumped up the timetable.
• Corpsing: Often the case for the actor playing Yitzhak, especially during the Broadway production: all of Lena Hall's Hedwigs were known to mess with her during performances to try and make her break. One documented instance is on a bootleg of John Cameron Mitchell from the Broadway production, where Hedwig's extended bizarre monologue about the death of Phyllis Stein causes Hall to visibly break.
• Mythology Gag:
  • In the Broadway production, Hedwig claims her recent controversial encounter with Tommy occurred in the "newly annoying Meatpacking District": she was banned from entering the Jane Hotel because "apparently I left my douche ID at home." The Jane Hotel is a boutique hotel that in a previous life was less-glamorous Hotel Riverview. In the late 90s and early 2000s, the Hotel Riverview's ballroom was home to the Jane Street Theatre, an Off-Broadway house that staged the original production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The irony of show's former seedy Off-Broadway home now being a place she would never be allowed into was apparently not lost on the creators.
  • When John Cameron Mitchell played Hedwig on Broadway and the aforementioned reference occurred, his Hedwig would sometimes react to the cheers of recognition with confusion, asking "Are you meat being packed?"
• Non-Singing Voice: Tommy's singing voice was dubbed by Stephen Trask, who wrote the songs.
• Reality Subtext: In the film version, Hedwig often has her face obscured or is shot from the back. This was because John Cameron Mitchell enjoyed being able to stand back and watch scenes play out and deliberately reduced his on-screen presence so he could continue being an observer.

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