One-Woman Rock Opera EXES: THE MUSICAL is Coming to The Hollywood Fringe Festival
Limited engagement runs June 7-25 at The Actor's Company (The Other Space).
Journey through a harrowing array of ex-boyfriends in the new Y2K nostalgia rock opera EXES: The Musical written by Anne DiGiovanni (p/k/a deegie) and Joseph Lewczak. The limited engagement runs June 7 - 25 and will be presented as part of the 2025 Hollywood Fringe Festival. Olivia Facini directs the production for the first time since its return to Hollywood after its premiere at The Hudson Theatre and an outstanding run at the 2025 New York City Fringe Festival.
deegie, a powerhouse pop punk princess, takes a deep dive into her past relationships through her real diaries in the one-woman rock opera, EXES: The Musical. Taking the audience on an unexpected journey through the fairytale romantic myths of popular culture, deegie's diaries chronicle a range of boyfriends - from men who made clear they never wanted to be serious, to clingy, cloying men who held deegie too tight. Her reliving of how pop culture intertwines with rape culture and impacts women as they come of age is a rollercoaster ride with the highs of love and validation and the lows of emotional repression, leaving deegie screaming "Stop the ride!" With the sound of Olivia Rodrigo's older sister (or Avril Lavigne's younger one), each song is an exploration of memory, accountability, and perspective only time can give.
deegie released an EP called EXES about her ex-boyfriends with their real names in the titles and debuted EXES: The Musical in a sold-out performance at The Hudson Theatre in Los Angeles in October 2024. Opening Night dubbed the New York City Fringe Festival run in April "a feminist reckoning that transcends personal history. . .[with] powerhouse vocals," and Theatre Beyond Broadway proclaimed, "deegie owns the stage. Owns it."
deegie shared, "Creating this show has been like making a scrapbook of my life, but one I want to glue shut forever, except the songs are so fun to do live and the stories are so vivid, that I'm addicted - almost as much as I was addicted to my EXES." She went on to say, "I also hope that recounting being sexually assaulted and the ambiguity and ambivalence of that trauma is something that can help other survivors process in new ways."
deegie emotional directness and empowering energy have inspired questions like "What makes you so angry?" There's something about a woman being raw, bold, and fierce with gut-punching lyrics that makes people uncomfortable despite her anthemic melodies, and deegie's mission is to shine a klieg light on that truth. deegie is currently releasing songs off her forthcoming EP, Feminism 101, documenting her experiences as a woman in a man's world.
EXES: The Musical runs June 7 - 25 with performances on Saturday, June 7 at 2 pm, Friday, June 20 at 9:30 pm, and Wednesday, June 25 at 5:30 pm. Running time: 60 minutes.
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