From dailydarrennews:
Interview with ETonline.com
ETonline.com wrote:EXCLUSIVE: Darren Criss Says the biggest Challenge of Playing 'Hedwig' Is Not Being Able to Drink
Darren Criss may play a rock star in Hedwig and the Angry Inch, but he's definitely not partying like one.
ET caught up with the 29-year-old actor at a special screening of the hit musical's 2001 movie adaptation starring John Cameron Mitchell at the Rooftop Cinema Club in Hollywood, where he dished on the hardest part of playing Hedwig on stage.
"Honestly, not being able to drink!" Criss laughed. "And by the way, you can! But that's a horrible idea."
"It's not so much for looking good -- It's more so you don't, like, puke on stage," he explained. "I'll just be here and have a little seltzer water. It's fine. There are worse problems than that."
For Criss, giving up booze for a chance to reprise the role he played on Broadway is completely worth it.
"It was a show and a score and a character that I was so taken with as a teenager that, you know,being able to pass on the effect that it had on me to newer people -- it is a real torch-passing moment," he said. "People always ask what your dream role is, and I say, 'I'm good.' This is like Hamlet. I'm serious. It is at that level."
The former Glee star will be kicking off the upcoming national tour of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, playing the titular character for the first two stops in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and he couldn't be more excited.
"I was never not going to do it again. I heard it was going to San Francisco, where I'm from, so the idea of somebody else doing it, I was like, 'No, no, no, no,'" he confessed. "It's gotta be me! It's sort of like a homecoming for me."
As for what's next, Criss is keeping future projects under wraps.
"Hopefully 2017 will be a really interesting year, where I'll just drop something and you'll be like, 'When did he do that?'" he teased. "The answer was, 'Right around now.'"
Fans can catch Criss at his performances of Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the SHN Golden Gate Theatre in San Francisco, and at the Hollywood Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles in November.
ETonline.com
September 20, 2016
The written article is edited a bit strangely. When Darren talked about it not so much for looking good, but it's more so he doesn't puke on stage, he was talking about being on a strict diet (not about drinking alchohol).
However, there was a part in the written article that seemed to have been cut out of the video interview, where he talks about how much the show, the score, and the character meant to him as a teen, and how to be able to pass on that effect to other people is "a real torch-passing moment."
One difference between the video and the article (at least in terms of what I heard Darren say in the video) is that in the video, I believe Darren said:
Darren wrote:Hopefully 2017 will be a really interesting year, where I'll just drop some things, and you'll be like, 'When did he do that?' And the answer was, 'Right around now.'
I think he said, "some things," (as in plural), not "something." But could be just my wishful thinking.
Top of my wish list of "some things" that I wish Darren would do, of course would be to release his own EP or album! I would also love for him to be a guest star on a TV show (or a regular cast member on a TV show with a short season), or to be in another film!
And uh, yeah, Darren. Not being able to drink is the hardest thing about playing
Hedwig. So . . . not the cuts and bruises on your feet and legs while on stage, not getting in shape so that your cardio-vacular is in tip-top shape for this show where you sing 90%
of the songs, all the while executing some challenging choreography? So . . . not being able to sing emotional ballads, just as well as energetic rock songs? Not having to play multiple characters in a way that helps the audience distinguish their unique personalities, ages, psychological backgrounds? Not being just as effective in delivering comedy, as intensely emotional dramatic scenes, all the while demonstrating your skills at impromptu, while responding to what the audience throws at you?