At one point in the show Hedwig and the Angry Inch, after the sounds of rock brat Tommy Gnosis's Meadowlands gig spill into the Jane Steet Theater, Hedwig buries her head against the wall and defeatedly mutters, "Tommy...can you hear me?" It's a poignant moment--one that seems hyperreal now that the phrase is spoken by Michael Cerveris, the 38-year old actor nominated for a Tony in 1993's Tommy. "People think I threw that line in," Cerveris jokes before a recent weeknight performance. "But it's been there since the beginning."

Cerveris is a natural successor to John Cameron Mitchell as the tragicomic rock & roll queen. Just look at his résumé: In addition to Tommy, he's starred in Titanic on Broadway and recently served as guitarist during the final tour of former Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould. "Michael has much more experience doing the rock stuff," says Mitchell. "He's a better singer than me, too. He just has more chops."

"You have to be vigilant in protecting what you want to accomplish," he declares, referring to the prospect of record-label meddling. "John and I didn't want to have those goofy dialogue bits you find on cast albums--that makes the record seem less like a work of art unto itself and more like a souvenir for a different work of art." Aside from the thrill of recording an album on a major label, Trask is most excited about promoting the album on the road, playing in dive bars in Iowa City and such. "Going on the road is a very romantic idea for musicians," he maintains. "But for theater people, it's like one step above dinner theater."

Michell agrees. It's one thing to don the wig and glittery makeup in the Jane Street Theater. It's another thing entirely in Iowa--or Madison Square Garden. "We were going to open up for Kiss at the Garden," he says, "and that was scaring the hell out of me. We just don't have that many Kiss-like songs, and I think the irony would have been lost." To Mitchell's relief, the

The two actors became friends several years ago when both participated in a workshop for a rock musical based on the story of Queen. "They were teaching everybody to sing 'Bohemian Rhapsody' in a very square, very nonrock way," Cerveris recalls. "John and I were the bad boys in the back row, making jokes and not taking the whole thng seriously."

A year later, Mitchell offered his former cohort the starring role in what Rolling Stone dubbed "the first rock musical that truly rocks." Although Cerveris was a seasoned leading man on Broadway, he had never carried his own 90-minute show--much less one created by the person he succeeded. "I couldn't see anybody in this role but John," he says. "But the things that I'm afraid of are usually the things that I should do."

Growing up in West Virginia, Cerveris was the child of parents who met at Juilliard. (His brother is an actor, and his sister is currently in Phantom of the Opera.) Cerveris began his career in New York, but after landing a role as an English guitar student in the TV series Fame, he relocated to Los Angeles, where he soon became involved in a string of "lousy" punk bands.

These days, Cerveris is fronting a damn good group, and he's relishing the freedom of headlining this pseudo-rock show in which nothing can ever really go wrong. "One time, a big piece of the set fell from the ceiling," he says, rubbing his immaculately bald head. "It almost creamed me and the whole band. But that's the great thing about playing Hedwig: You're free to say and do whatever you want, and anything that goes wrong is just another unfortunate thing that happens to her."--SG


gig fell through at the last minute.

If Mitchell doesn't want to be a rock & roll road warrior (he's even a bit fearful of the album bearing a hit), it's because he's got other things on his mind. He's in the closing stages of inking a movie version of Hedwig. He's currently in Park City working on the screenplay as part of Sundance's Feature Film Program. And HBO has tapped him and Trask to work on an as-yet-untitled follow-up to 1997's Subway Stories anthology. "I'm ready to take the wig off," he declares. "I've realized all the rock star potential I've wanted to, and I'm really excited about translating this story cinematically. To me, Hedwig is the ultimate in conceptual art--you can constantly change the medium. She could be an installation. She can make an album. Or she can be on Vin Scelsa's radio show playing acoustic. It's like a big experiment."

So far, it's an experiment that has included appearances on CNN, Rosie O'Donnell and The Late Show with David Letterman. And it's had some peculiar ramifications. While the band rehearsed for The Late Show, the powers-that-be decided it wouldn't be a good idea if Mitchell ripped his wig off while performing "Tear Me Down," the show's opening number. So Mitchell decided to take it off after the song was finished. "And they edited it out," he says. "It's almost as if standards and practices said, 'Drag queens may not remove their wigs.' Like it would have freaked people out even more or something." He laughs again. "It used to be putting the wig on the man that was the problem."

Still, Letterman's people could have been catering to the millions of viewers who like to believe that RuPaul really is a woman. In fact, Letterman and Paul Shaffer referred to Mitchell only as "she" or "her." And the confusion didn't end there. Says Mitchell, "A friend of ours who lives in Michigan said her plumber saw a Hedwig poster on her wall--and he said, 'I saw her on TV last night! That lady can move.'"

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Atlantic) is out February 9.


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