Taye Diggs Begins Performances in 'Hedwig'

Taye Diggs has begun performances in "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," the 2014 Tony Award winning Best Musical Revival. Diggs will play the title role for a limited 12-week engagement at Broadway's Belasco Theatre (111 West 44th Street).

"Hedwig" marks Diggs' first New York stage role since the 2005 revival of "A Soldier's Play."

He can currently be seen in the second season of Steven Bochco's crime drama "Murder in the First." He made his Broadway debut in 1994 in the Tony Award-winning revival of "Carousel." Soon after, he landed the role of Benny in in the landmark musical "Rent," a role he recreated in the 2005 film version. Diggs' other New York stage credits include "Chicago," "Wicked," and Andrew Lippa's "The Wild Party." His many film and television credits include "How Stella Got Her Groove Back," "Go," "Chicago," "The Best Man," its follow up "The Best Man Holiday," and six seasons on ABC's hit drama "Private Practice."

"Hedwig and the Angry Inch," with book by John Cameron Mitchell and music and lyrics by Stephen Trask, directed by Michael Mayer, also stars Rebecca Naomi Jones as Yitzhak. The production has received rave reviews and is winner of four 2014 Tony Awards and won Best Musical Revival by the Tony Awards, the Drama Desk Awards, Drama League Awards, and Outer Critics Circle Awards. The Grammy nominated Original Broadway Cast album for "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" is available from Atlantic Records.

"Internationally ignored song stylist" Hedwig Robinson (Taye Diggs) brings her fourth-wall-smashing rock and roll saga to New York to set the record straight about her life, her loves, and the botched operation that left her with that "angry inch."

"Hedwig" has inspired a generation of young theatre writers and audiences. This wickedly funny and heartbreaking show was called "the Best Rock Musical Ever" by Rolling Stone and "the most exciting rock score written for the theatre since, oh, ever," by Time Magazine.

"Hedwig and The Angry Inch" was originally produced by David Binder off off Broadway at Westbeth and then, under the direction of Peter Askin, ran over two years at the Jane Street Theatre beginning in February 1998. The musical won the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical and both John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask won Obies in 2001. It won a 1998 New York Magazine Award and Entertainment Weekly's "Soundtrack of the Year" Award. Time Magazine named "Hedwig" the Top Musical of 1998.

The film of "Hedwig and The Angry Inch," directed by John Cameron Mitchell, won the Audience Award and Best Director Awards at Sundance. Mitchell won the Best New Director from the National Board of Review, the Gotham Awards, and the LA Critics Society. Stage productions have played for many years in Japan and in 2008, Korea hosted a popular televised reality show about the search for a new star to play Hedwig.

The creative team for "Hedwig and The Angry Inch" features Emmy Award nominee Spencer Liff (musical staging), Tony Award nominee and Drama Desk Award winner Julian Crouch (scenic design), Tony Award and two-time Oscar nominee Arianne Phillips (costume design), four-time Tony Award winner Kevin Adams (lighting design), Mike Potter (hair and makeup design), Tony Award nominee and platinum-selling record producer Tim O'Heir (sound design), Benjamin Pearcy for 59 Productions (projection design), John Bair/Phosphene (animation), James Calleri (casting), Tony and Grammy Award nominee Ethan Popp (music supervisor & music coordinator), Justin Craig (music director), Liz Caplan (vocal supervision), Stephen Gabis (dialect coach), and Johanna McKeon (associate director).

The members of "The Angry Inch," Hedwig's band, are music director Justin Craig (guitar and keyboards), Matt Duncan (bass), Tim Mislock (guitar), and Peter Yanowitz (drums).

David Binder, who first produced "Hedwig" in 1997, is producing the musical on Broadway with Jayne Baron Sherman, Barbara Whitman, Latitude Link, Patrick Catullo, Raise The Roof, Paula Marie Black, Colin Callender, Ruth Hendel, Sharon Karmazin, Martian Entertainment, Stacey Mindich, Eric Schnall, and The Shubert Organization. 101 Productions, Ltd are the executive producers.

Tickets for "Hedwig and The Angry Inch" are available now by calling 212-239-6200 or visiting Telecharge.com, or via the Belasco Theatre Box Office (111 West 44th Street). Ticket prices range from $142 - $47.