For those who are hoping for a repeat of the transgressive quality the event had on Jane Street in 1998, this is a very different thing. Even Jane Street itself is no longer transgressive, and they have inserted references to the events on Jane Street and why this performance is taking place at the Belasco Theater.
He definitely commands the material in "Wig in a Box" and "Origin of Love," but I was most affected by his "Wicked Little Town."
But there is something distinctly challenging and transgressive happening with Neil Patrick Harris playing this role in 2014. Very different, but definitely in our face.
The theater is filled with fans of How I Met Your Mother, primarily young, primarily straight. They are already used to seeing an out gay man (with a husband and two kids) playing a straight man. That in itself is transgressive, if not to the people watching the show, at least to the generation that came before them.
Then they walk into Hedwig. The gay man who plays a straight man enters in a dress and a wig. It's outlandish but not cartoonish. Then he begins to unravel the story and explain the "angry inch." This makes people just as uncomfortable in 2014 as it did in 1998. The story is not sugar-coated.
What makes it 2014-transgressive is that NPH's TV audience has to take Hedwig's problems and emotions seriously. It's definitely different from Jane Street, 1998. But if you love the material and you like watching talented actors stretch and test themselves, it's a must-see.
Updated On: 4/17/14 at 12:01 PM