Special Reports

Michael Cerveris’ Hedwig and her Angry Inch Returns to NYC for Super Secret Performance

Kimberly Kaye

New York City

October 22, 2012

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Michael Cerveris, as seen moments before making a surprise appearances at Barracuda as Hedwig.
(Photo courtesy of @Kimberly_Kaye)

This photo of Cerveris was Tweeted just minutes before his pop-up performance of Hedwig’s “Wig in a Box” hit Chelsea.
(Photo courtesy of @Kimberly_Kaye)

Hedwig, the transgender bombshell star of cult off-Broadway classic Hedwig and the Angry Inch, made her first appearance in New York in over a decade on October 18, 2012, when Tony Award-winner Michael Cerveris slipped back into his heels and corset for a super secret pop-up performance at Chelsea’s Barracuda.

The appearance, featuring an epic rendition of “Wig in a Box” which brought down a packed house of Broadway gypsies and drag queens, was arranged in honor of longtime Broadway hair supervisor Rick Caroto’s birthday. Caroto currently tends to Cerveris’ pate as his wig guru on Evita, in which Cerveris stars as Juan Peron.

So why would Cerveris don Hedwig’s blonde Farrah Fawcett get-up for a birthday party, after turning down similar appearances for years?

“Rick is my friend,” he explains simply. “Also, when you’re bald, you really have to treat your hair people right.”

Cerveris, who was hand-picked by Hedwig and the Angry Inch show creator and original title star John Cameron Mitchell as his successor during the show’s original off-Broadway run, also says he’s eager to pull the wig off the shelf for longer than a one-night-only appearance. When asked if he would ever do a full run of the show again:

“I would love it,” he says. “I adored it here, I adored it throughout London and Los Angeles. I miss her [Hedwig] very much.”