I remember seeing a movie in 2001 and thinking afterward that I’d just watched a Rocky Horror Picture Show for a new generation. The songs were better, the story more tender, and I knew it would last and last in cult screenings for decades. The film, of course, was Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which as it turns out, has lasted for nearly 20 years. Since 2001, it’s lived on in midnight screenings, a hit Broadway revival, and in various stagings around the world.
But one person has been largely absent from the stage throughout it all: Hedwig co-creator and original star, John Cameron Mitchell. This week, Mitchell comes to the Bay Area for a night called The Origin of Love, and with his Hedwig co-creator Stephan Trask, he tells stories about the film, sings a handful of its beautiful songs, and brings the spirit of Hedwig to life as only he can. That’s on Saturday, Feb. 29, at Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley.—Gabe Meline
