Taye Diggs News

It was a rock concert yesterday at the final performance of the Tony-winning production of HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH. Check out photos from the curtain call below!

Hottest Articles on BroadwayWorld.com from this weekend Sunday, September 13, 2015 - Sunday, September 13, 2015.

After the curtain call, Stephen Trask, and more took the stage to say a few farewell words to the crowd and even led the team in one last song. Click here to check out the high-powered bows, emotional speeches, plus a special on-the-spot performance!

The hit, Tony-winning revival of HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH closes on Broadway today, September 13, 2015. Taye Diggs, the show's current star, wraps the run. At the time of closing, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH will have played 22 previews and 506 regular performances at the Belasco Theatre. Below, BroadwayWorld takes you from Broadway's first HEDWIG to its sixth, stopping to remember everything in between!

For the past two years The Kilroys solicited nominations from over 300 theatre professionals, (primarily artistic directors and literary managers), for their favorite new plays by female-identified playwrights. In June they published The List -- the top 53 of these plays. In the same spirit of promoting opportunities for female and trans artists, Colt Coeur will produce four public readings of new plays by female-identified playwrights to coincide with the run of How to Live on Earth, by MJ Kaufman, who's play Sagitarrius Ponderosa was selected for The List this year.

Today, the producers of Hedwig and the Angry Inch announced that the record-breaking musical has raised over $600,000 for Hetrick-Martin Institute during the production's record-breaking run at the Belasco Theatre (111 West 44th Street).

Dave Thomas Brown, recently of Heathers: The Musical at New World Stages, leads a cast that also includes Wayne Duvall (O Brother Where Art Thou?, Leatherheads), Matt McGrath (Cabaret, Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Keith Nobbs (Lombardi, 'The Black Donnellys') and Afton C. Williamson ('Nashville,' 'Homeland'), in Matthew Lopez's THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE, the first production of MCC's 2015-16 Main Stage Season. THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE begins previews tonight, August 20, 2015 ahead of a September 9, 2015 opening night.

Broadway's newest HEDWIG, Taye Diggs, and the show's composer, Stephen Trask reflect on the Tony-winning musical as well as what's ahead for its future.

When HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH opened off-Broadway in 1998, I'd just entered high school. As a teenage theatre geek in Massachusetts, my only available resources were local theatres, and the few Broadway cast recordings sold at the local mall, so I remained oblivious. When the 2001 movie was later produced, I'd grown to identify as a member of the LGBT community, but queer independent films were far off my radar, despite the cult following that had quickly developed surrounding this particular film. Now, although I will miss the recent Broadway revival of HEDWIG (which will close on September 13), I've grown familiar with the material, thanks in part to YouTube, and many years of visiting the famous Musical Theatre Mondays at NYC's Splash bar (R.I.P.), which frequently showed clips of "Wig in a Box," "Wicked Little Town," and "The Origin of Love."

Beginning last night, August 25, American Ballet Theatre principal dancer Misty Copeland made her Broadway debut as 'Ivy Smith' in the Tony Award nominated revival of On The Town, continuing in the role through the end of the musical's run on September 6. 

Viva la vie boheme! RENT's 20th anniversary is coming up, and NYC is celebrating with two revivals of Jonathan Larson's hit musical this fall.

Can't make it to NYC before the end of the summer to see a Broadway show? Want to sing and dance in the comfort of your living room? BroadwayWorld has you covered with BROADWAY BINGE, a guide to all of the musicals or inspirations for hit Broadway musicals currently available for streaming on Netflix. So get out of the summer heat, get the popcorn ready, and check out the list below get your Broadway Binge on!

Let's see what the critics had to say...

Dave Thomas Brown, recently of Heathers: The Musical at New World Stages, leads a cast that also includes Wayne Duvall (O Brother Where Art Thou?, Leatherheads), Matt McGrath (Cabaret, Hedwig and the Angry Inch), Keith Nobbs (Lombardi, 'The Black Donnellys') and Afton C. Williamson ('Nashville,' 'Homeland'), in Matthew Lopez's THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE, the first production of MCC's 2015-16 Main Stage Season. THE LEGEND OF GEORGIA MCBRIDE begins previews tonight, August 20, 2015 ahead of a September 9, 2015 opening night.

Hedwig will soon put the wig back on the shelf. As BroadwayWorld reported yesterday, Tony-winning revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch will close on Broadway on Sept, 13. Taye Diggs, the show's current star, will wrap its run. Now the show has officially updated its lottery policy. A recent tweet reads: 'Hedwig Alert! New lottery timing - you may now enter 2 hours before each performance; winners drawn 90 minutes prior to show time.'

Colt Coeur Artistic Director Adrienne Campbell-Holt and Managing Director Amy Ashton announce the company's 6th season. The 2015-2016 season will include World Premieres by MJ Kaufman and William Francis Hoffman. While Colt Coeur spends the year developing plays and creating innovative initiatives, this is the first time they will be presenting a two-play season.

Broadway star Taye Diggs talks about his lead role as the gender-bending rock singer Hedwig Schmidt in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch." 'It's the role of a lifetime,' says the actor. 'I guarantee I won't ever play anything as challenging.'

Lines are blurring. Gender-bending is seemingly everywhere these days, from high fashion ads to news coverage to I AM CAIT, Queen Latifah as The Wiz and beyond. Furthermore, one of the most provocative and popular stories of last week was the news of a Canadian regional production of A CHORUS LINE casting a male actor in the leading role of Cassie, renamed Casey. With the additional angle of Broadway currently being abuzz with the appearance of stage and screen star Taye Diggs stepping into the iconic high heels of the titular character in the recently multi-Tony Award-winning musical HEDWIG & THE ANGRY INCH - itself centered on a transsexual character - it seems as though now would be the ideal time to consider some other musical theatre mainstays and how they could be re-purposed and refreshed with a gender-bended twist. Although certain roles seems tailor-made to such treatment, it is illuminating to consider the rich possibilities that could potentially be afforded in the experience of witnessing the right performer of perhaps the perceivably wrong sex tackling a role normally associated with the opposite gender. Who knows, maybe a female Phantom or a make Elphaba are not that wildly spurious or far-fetched to consider given the compelling performances that have been given by unlikely actors in roles traditionally portrayed in a certain way. Theatre is nothing without reinvention and these are my top 10 picks for musicals I would like to see taken on with fresh eyes and a new outlook.

The actor stops by USA TODAY's NYC studio to talk about the challenging role.