Darren Criss Ends His Tour Run as Hedwig Today

He added in a couple new things in the melodies here and there – Origin of Love was one of them, though I can’t quite remember where he made the changes. I’ll have to listen to it again.  He’s started doing some interesting things in Wicked Little Town Reprise, like kind of yelling the last “wicked” as he’s lowering down from the platform. Origin of Love and Wicked Little Town win for the best songs today, I think, though Wig in a Box is also in the running. He’s also started singing the word “mighty” in Origin of Love on the line “by the mighty hand of Jove” in the quiet, soft way he used to do it in his early days on Broadway, which I’m also very happy about. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that before.

Random notes:

– In Sugar Daddy, during the Luther portion and Hedwig’s response, Darren didn’t lay down on the car because after he took the twinkly skirt off, it got stuck on his hand (or one of his bracelets? I’m not sure what it was stuck to). He spent the entire time that Luther was speaking and most of the time he was replying trying to get the skirt off, then when he finally got it off, he jumped up on the car for the dancing portion when the song picks up again.

– On the Long Grift, Lena changed the phrasing on the second “look what you’ve done” – the mic fell off of the stand, and she had to rush to pick it up from the floor, so when she started singing is when she managed to get it back.

– When Yitzhak is supposed to say “November 9, 1988,” she said 1989. There was a pause that probably only I felt was awkward because I knew what she was supposed to say, and I wasn’t sure what she was going to do to save it. After the pause, she continued as usual, and then said 1990 when she would usually say 1989. Hopefully no one in the audience was particularly fresh on the dates of the Berlin Wall!

– After Wicked Little Town was one of my favorite Yitzwig moments with Darren and Lena; Lena was so wrapped up in Hedwig when she went over to give her her water and such. They looked like they were speaking quietly to each other for a long time, and they sort of nuzzled noses, and Darren affectionately touched Lena’s face. It was wonderful.

– On that same note, at the end of today’s show was the most joyfully in tune I’ve felt Darren and Lena have been in the times I’ve seen them – when Yitzhak came out as Krystal Nacht, Darren looked so thrilled to see her, and they seemed so happy to be free and themselves, and to see each other being free and themselves. I felt like there was a lot of love between them today in general.

– We ALMOST got that nice silence after Wicked Little Town Reprise – the audience was perfectly quiet, I thought it was going to happen, but then one person had to yell YOW and then everyone starting cheering and clapping. Kind of frustrating, but not a big deal because it didn’t influence the performances or anything.

Overall, this was one of my most favorite performances I’ve seen.