![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/John-Cameron-Mitchell_Photo2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nIt\u2019s been 25 years since the release of \u201cHedwig and the Angry Inch,\u201d the film adaptation of John Cameron Mitchell\u2019s off-Broadway glam punk opus of the same name.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, the film is being revisited by its creator, who will be in Phoenix on Monday, August 3, at The Van Buren as part of the \u201cHedwig and the Angry Inch\u201d 25th Anniversary Tour. Fans can expect an interactive screening of the film, an in-person conversation and Q&A with Mitchell and an acoustic performance of songs from the musical. Also, there will be an opportunity to put on some makeup, turn on the tape deck and put the wig back on your head with a \u201cHedwig\u201d costume contest, with prizes from the Punk Rock Museum and the Criterion Collection.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The film follows the titular Hedwig (played by Mitchell), a sardonic, gender-bending punk singer from war-torn Berlin who flees communism, band breakups and abusive relationships \u2013 both romantic and musical. Along the way, she and her band tour the Midwest, ripping through Bowie and Lou Reed-inspired songs full of innuendo to audiences at seafood restaurants, one-person music festival side stages and dingy nightclubs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the term \u201ccult classic\u201d is sometimes used, that label often gets applied to the \u201cso bad it\u2019s good\u201d genre, which is decidedly not the case with Hedwig (a recent Criterion re-release speaks to its importance in the canon of excellent and subversive filmmaking).\u00a0<\/p>\n
In fact, Hedwig, in Mitchell\u2019s interpretation, is a musical that defies easy labeling. It exists in the conversation of queer films, but it is not expressly about being queer. It is both crass and cerebral, camp and Criterion, fiercely uncompromising and tongue firmly in cheek. It exists as a meditation on trauma and survival through the lens of glam rock, wrapped up and sold with a smirk and Mitchell\u2019s high heels and booming tenor in one of the most physically demanding roles ever captured on film.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mitchell, fresh off his run as Mary Lincoln on Cole Escola\u2019s Broadway smash \u201cOh, Mary!\u201d, took time to talk to Hedwig, being creative in the face of fascism, becoming David Byrne\u2019s muse, and much more from his home in New Orleans.<\/p>\n
Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.\u00a0<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
John Cameron Mitchell will come to Phoenix next month.<\/p>\n
Provided by ThisMyShowPresents<\/p>\n
Phoenix New Times: Are you hibernating now that \u201cOh, Mary!\u201d is done? That seemed like \u2026 a lot.\u00a0<\/strong> Are you sharing any of the memoir\u2019s anecdotes about \u201cHedwig\u201d on this tour?\u00a0<\/strong> Drag is so ubiquitous on Broadway now. I know that must make you proud, because of how hard you worked to infuse your art, especially \u201cHedwig,\u201d with it. Is it bittersweet to see what was fringe 25 years ago be so popular today?<\/strong> I grew up in the rural South, and \u201cHedwig\u201d had a reputation for being a \u201cbanned\u201d movie that could turn people \u201cgay\u201d according to the youth ministers in our church, so congratulations on that.<\/strong> You do espouse the kindness of punk. I saw David Byrne a few weeks ago \u2014<\/strong> It was! And your anecdote about, \u201cLove and kindness are forms of resistance, of punk\u201d was the centerpiece of his show.<\/strong> Revisiting Hedwig, are you still learning from her?<\/strong> Since we are scapegoats again, I am encouraging productions with very obviously gender nonconforming people to take on the role. I don\u2019t think the character needs to be played by a trans or even a queer person.\u00a0<\/p>\n I\u2019ve even known people who are cis or straight who played (Hedwig) and it opened them up in another way or transitioned in some other way \u2014 bisexual or whatever, nonbinary. It\u2019s a gift to be able to play because it changes you and to restrict who gets to play it is against its own philosophy. We are an identity of one, and we have the option of developing on our own or we have the option of being forced into categories like Hedwig was. So to me, I am encouraging trans and nonbinary actors to really go for Hedwig because they weren\u2019t allowed to be in the acting schools until more recently. So we\u2019ve had generations of people who didn\u2019t fit in who could have been brilliant artists. It\u2019s a fucking outrage.\u00a0<\/p>\n I love that it remains something that can be rediscovered by new generations, and not get canceled, because it isn\u2019t an identity story \u2014 it\u2019s a story of recovering from trauma. It\u2019s a hypothesis that we are all in effect androgenous, nonbinary, whatever you want to call it, and our clumsy human interactions with that process can lead to trauma and tears and violence. Hedwig is moving through that time and ultimately triumphing and letting the audience know they can take their own path.\u00a0<\/p>\n You have mentioned the importance, on almost a moral or spiritual level, of the need for human beings to create as an act of punk or rebellion. How does that factor into your revisiting of \u201cHedwig\u201d?<\/strong> It\u2019s also combined with AI, which feels like a threat to our very soul, in a way. But that doesn\u2019t scare me as much, because AI will never have its heart broken. It can only simulate it. Funny enough, we did an AI search last night for names for what my memoir should be called, even though I already had my title, just to compare. They were pretty bad, but there was one that made us laugh: \u201cGlitter in the Wound.\u201d Thanks, Chat GPT.<\/p>\n But these things are tools. Just like Bowie used to cut up newspapers and scatter the words to see what would come out of them \u2014 just like tea leaves. We can do the same with AI, or the I Ching, we can do the same with the tarot. These are all things that are tools. I don\u2019t want to ignore AI, but it doesn\u2019t encroach on my art. However, I also see its danger when it comes to other worlds where AI will replace jobs. AI can easily make a Lifetime movie script, because they\u2019re so shitty. but you know, maybe let it. Maybe it will force people to get more creative. Unfortunately, that\u2019s the equivalent of making sausages \u2014 someone gets paid, it\u2019s a job, and then if that happens, that job goes away.\u00a0<\/p>\n John Cameron Mitchell wrapped up a stint in \u201cOh, Mary!\u201d earlier this year.<\/p>\n Provided by ThisMyShowPresents<\/p>\n You are in New Orleans, and you have famously said that New Orleans is a \u201ccity in drag.\u201d How has the city shaped your creativity?<\/strong> New Orleans, we\u2019re our own thing. We are the best of America. And We\u2019re also the sphincter of America, too, at the end of the Mississippi. It\u2019s kind of toxic, it\u2019s very fertile, it\u2019s messy, it\u2019s falling apart. And yet, as we know, the anus is a very important part of our body, releasing toxins and pleasure. It\u2019s a pleasure town. I love that. But there is an honesty and beauty in this city, in its unbowed determination to not change, for better and for worse.\u00a0<\/p>\n Phoenix has a bit of that. We live in 110-degree heat. We\u2019re resilient. It\u2019s not for everyone.<\/strong> That\u2019s why I am still patriotic about an America that I grew up with, which is the place where the misfits would come. There\u2019s many Americas, many of which I don\u2019t subscribe to, and many that I am repelled by. But this idea that we are better together; we are better with different stories and places behind us, we are about ingenuity and figuring it out. Sometimes the goal isn\u2019t my goal, but the way that people try to figure it out, working together \u2014 I like that.\u00a0<\/p>\n To me, America should be a mixed party. Those are always the best. I don\u2019t know if that comes from New Orleans, from theater, from my military upbringing, but it is deeply a part of me. Please, what have you got to bring to the party? If everything and everyone is the same, I\u2019m bored and going to leave.\u00a0<\/p>\n
John Cameron Mitchell<\/strong>: I am resting a bit, and trying desperately to get back to my writing and working on a new play and memoir and try not to do anything else, and not get distracted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
People can ask whatever they want. I\u2019m not a super \u201cprepare\u201d type of person. I\u2019m ready, but then it\u2019s time to improvise. There\u2019s stories, sometimes a Q and A, a music set about half an hour with a guitarist and a meet-n-greet, and it\u2019s really just a nice celebration of how far \u201cHedwig\u201d has come and also how much it affected people, which in a way is still so unexpected. When we first made it, it was for us. There was no way it could be on Broadway or be up for Oscars. It was too different for its more conservative time in 2001, and that freed us up to make something unique. We didn\u2019t have to change it to be mainstream because mainstream didn\u2019t want us anyway. So we allowed it to become what it was and people found it over time, usually DVDs, friends telling each other, sometimes screenings like this.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No, things change. They take their time. Sometimes you wish it would happen faster. You know, drag, strangely, is very Broadway. It\u2019s been popular in a mainstream way in Britain and Australia, for example, and even Canada. We in the U.S. are behind when it comes to things like that, but someone has to be the first to push through and be the first to punch a hole in the dark. Those people aren\u2019t necessarily reaping financial benefits, but that\u2019s OK. I\u2019d rather be 10 people\u2019s favorite thing than a million people\u2019s so-so thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I grew up very Catholic. My mom was a super-Catholic, and I guess it\u2019s the same in Protestant churches? There\u2019s always that ceremony where the priest or minister or whoever shakes everyone\u2019s hand at the door at the end of the service. We are leaving the service and she introduces me to the priest, who leans over and whispers in my ear, \u2018How did you get away with \u201cShortbus,\u201d you naughty boy?\u2019 So, you know, It\u2019s like in some ways, I\u2019m a modern Catholic priest \u2014 like the one I wanted.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What an incredible show.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was incredible. I\u2019ve gotten to meet him a few times, but I saw him before his show in Detroit. He was very sweet about it and he checked in with me about it and made sure I was good with that. He has aged so well, and he is so kind. He\u2019s on the spectrum but he laughs about it. It\u2019s not the same as a narcissist. David\u2019s trying to interact, and the world is a little bit harder for him. He has a heart that\u2019s bigger than anyone\u2019s for the world. But he can only express it through music sometimes. He\u2019s a wonderful guide and he remains young because he remains curious. I saw him at Jazzfest and he easily could have had a driver or Uber take him to the show, but he chose to ride his bike to the gig because he wants to experience the city and the people.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Hedwig_017cMickRock-1-1.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
It\u2019s amazing that it is delightfully resilient, and timeless maybe? In a time when specifically queer and trans people are being scapegoated again. The immigrant and the queer people are the default scapegoat during times like these. People leap to attack them first. So we\u2019re back to the 1950s. So in this time of slow-moving fascism, we find out what we are made of under this sort of pressure. Some of us are just trying to survive, and sadly, this type of fascism has fucked with people\u2019s ability to live and cost of living. The arrogant moves of a war and tariffs, and the king-like decisions that often destroy a country\u2019s morality as well as their economy. So we are finding out what is going on here. We still have an electoral system, so we can still change things, but we are seeing someone knock down as many institutions as they can to never be able to go back. The money we spent on helping shut down HIV in Africa, for example, and saving 25 million people has been cut and that will rebound on us. So, anyway, I think Hedwig has always had a role in reflecting the culture of the moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To me, yes, \u201cHedwig\u201d will always be a weapon for good \u2014 for kindness, for transgression, into the light, not just to shock or destroy. That\u2019s what punk was originally, a way to shatter the establishment to allow a fairer, more egalitarian, anti-capitalist, creative class to come forward out of wherever. Not just people who had money or could afford a guitar. It happened in art and music, the Dada Period, which I am writing about as well with my new concept, and the Surrealists. These kinds of rebellions in art come up periodically. They come out of frustration \u2014 in their case, war. Some of the best art comes out of conflict, so perhaps now is a time.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/John-Cameron-Mitchell_Photo1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Well, the politics for one. The governor is messing with us now, taking away our only Black representative, and the election was already happening and he stopped it. It\u2019s just a huge power grab, and we have a recall against him, but what a toadie. One thing about this city is it can\u2019t be bowed. He\u2019s even banned drag \u2014 imagine doing that in New Orleans? Everyone would be out in drag.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
I lived in Albuquerque as a kid for a minute. That interesting desert, Southwest thing was always compelling. My favorite thing about it was that, being a military kid, being exposed to so many places and people, race and gender, there was always a big mix, so I never quite understood why people would freak out about things like\u00a0 that. If you look close, in the desert, you are going to find beauty, just like in a lot of places. Although Arizona has more MAGA assholes these days \u2026<\/p>\n