Another review by a news source of the Bay Area: The Mercury News: "Review: Bad-ass 'Hedwig' returns with a vengeance"
It's a mixed review. The good: She approves of Darren's "wisecracking bitchiness," his skill in "tart repartee," and finds Darren to be a "legit rock singer," with "white-hot vocals," and "endearing."
The bad: The critic seems to disapprove of Darren's interpretation of the character of Hedwig, wanting less "youthful exuberance," "muscular bravado," and "hopefulness," and more world-weariness. Interestingly, she notes it is unfair to compete with memories of John Cameron Mitchell (the book is by John, which is loosely based on his life). She also felt that Darren is "too baby-faced" (for this reason, I wonder if she would disapprove of Andrew, although she neglected to mention Andrew's name in the list of Broadway Hedwig actors).
I think this sentence is in line with her perspective (which she of course is entitled to have; there is room for different perspectives): "Some of the songs are less spiky this time around and more upbeat, which will rankle the devotees of yore . . . "
Her perspective reminds me of an insight of a long-time Hedwig fan.
ablurredrainbowconnection wrote:
Anonymous asked: what are your fav things about all the actors that played hedwig on broadway and how they portrayed her?
well first off, I tend to use gender neutral terms for Hedwig, since their gender identity is never made clear . . .
So I will start out by saying that it just isn’t ever going to get better then JCM. When you are so ingrained in writing/creating/portraying a character, the character becomes a part of you. Which is not to say the JCM is Hedwig, just that there are pieces of Hedwig that are JCM. So watching JCM do Hedwig is as close it gets to Hedwig being a real person, the person they were intended to be. IF that makes any sense.
In order to talk about the other actors it comes down to two camps(neither which i think is the right answer): did you try to do JCM’s Hedwig? or did you try to do your own version of Hedwig?
Both do and don’t work. For Instance I adore Micheal Cervisis’s Hedwig, definitely one of my favorites. But it is very much an homage to JCM’s. He didnt really put his own spin on it, but that was fine because he replicated it so well.
[. . . ]
The other option is to interpret Hedwig as your own, and not try to be JCM( which is probably the smarter choice). I would say MCH was the one actor who kind of straddled the line between these two schools of thought. While there were moments that felt new for him, a lot of it still felt like the JCM show . . .
Then there’s the final three [of those actors who tried to do a different version of Hedwig], who all made it there own to varying degrees of effectiveness.
[. . . ]
Despite what appears to be unpopular opinion, Darren has been one of my fave hedwigs, and not cause he’s Darren. His Hedwig felt both emotionally real, but not like a copycat. Not to mention his voice is best suited for the score. I’ve talked a lot about why I like Darren’s Hedwig, so I wont go completely into agian: but it basically boils down to the fact that his Hedwig is really devestating- and he doesn’t shy away from it. It’s a devastating show and to honor that is really important.
-ablurredrainbowconnection