Whether You Like it or Not…

Today was a normal Wednesday. I woke up before the Georgia sun had risen to get to my 8 AM Computer Arts class, and then returned at 11 AM, ready for my nappy time. But before I drifted off to dream land, I went onto the World Wide Web to see what was going on. And there I found something potentially life-changing. Or at least really fucking exciting.

Ladies and gentleman,

whether you like it or not,

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is headed to Broadway this fall, starring John Cameron Mitchell.

Just let that sentence sink in. I’m not sure how to punctuate it correctly, because no amount of exclamation marks or use of bolding or italics can really get across how truly incredible this is.

I must have read the New York Post article three times before I gripped the reality of it. I swear that I nearly cried.

It’s been 12 years since Hedwig did it’s off-Broadway run, and 9 years since the film came out. JCM says that he literally quit acting for that amount of time because the role was just so demanding…so I’m not completely sure why he’s choosing to go back to it now, but I’m certainly thankful that he is.

The original director, David Binder, and producer are also returning, and the play itself is changing. Binder says:

One thought is to fashion a story line that has Hedwig playing a one-night-only gig at a Broadway house. The previous show hasn’t moved out yet, so Hedwig is scrambling around an old set.

Stephen Trask is even going to write some new songs for this production that are inspired by Hedwigs around the world, which is really interesting. No word yet if Miriam Shor will be returning to play Hedwig’s much abused husband, Yitzhak.

There is no doubt at all that I will be there. Be it from San Diego, or Savannah, I would travel across the world to see John Cameron Mitchell play Hedwig. I’m almost worried, because after this, what more reason will I have to live?

I feel like this whole post is coming off as kind of cold and not very enthusiastic, but I don’t know how to express my joy for this short of using the caps lock key. And that’s just obnoxious.

Since my birthday is next week, I’m going to take this as a personal gift from the Universe to me. Thank you, Universe. Thank you very much.

(But if anyone else wants to get me a more immediate gift, I’d really appreciate the complete series of OZ.)

Now it’s only a matter of waiting. Until fall. When I get to see

John

Cameron

Mitchell

on

stage.

Blissfully,

Elaine

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“Showgirls: The Musical” and the Fan Base to Rival Them All.

Elaine texted me this morning that the new revival of “Bye Bye Birdie” was closing earlier than expected– at first I was sad, but then I decided to do some research of my own.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118012029.html?categoryid=15&cs=1

Turns out, “Bye Bye Biridie” is for sure closing on January 24th– but that’s actually 2 weeks after the original closing date. Plus, there’s really no reason for the show to go on past that since John and Gina (that is Stamos and Gershon respectively) will both be leaving the cast on January 24th, regardless of whether the show continues or not.

So that minor tribulation was over, but thinking about “Bye Bye Birdie” led me to think about Gina Gershon, who naturally led me to ponder the cinematic masterpiece “Showgirls”.

At the same time, I was also contemplating my future (“Showgirls” opens the door to deep, insightful thought) and I decided that I would become famous for writing “Showgirls: The Musical”. Obviously, the fan base is crazy enough that they would all need to see it (a blog post explaining why the “Showgirls” fan base is the craziest in the world, second only to Britney Spears’, will be coming soon).

I tried finding any recent info on the previous reported plans for an official “Showgirls” musical but the only really official thing I could find was from 2006… that’s 3 years ago. However, I did find this blog post referencing the project from 2008 and I thought you might enjoy it:

http://filmexperience.blogspot.com/2008/06/gina-gershon-on-showgirls-musical.html

Gina lists her “Top 5 movies that star Gina Gershon”, but amazingly, “Showgirls” isn’t one of them!

Sorry for the small digression– back to my future and writing “Showgirls: The Musical”…

Can I just assume that “Showgirls:The Musical” has died and that I can start my own version? Of course, once I finish it, I’ll mail it to Joe Eszterhas for a look and once he emphatically loves it, he’ll push the studio to help me out. However, he originally had the people behind “Urinetown” working for him, which is actually legit, so maybe I should try other pursuits?

I’m conflicted.