Michael C. Hall Goes From ‘Dexter’ To ‘Hedwig’
Michael C. Hall is going to Broadway in a role quite different from his previous one.
Hall, who shot to popularity as the psychotic do-gooder (is there such a thing?) Dexter, has agreed to star in the titular role of Hedwig, the German transgender boot-wearing rock star, in Broadway’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Hall is replacing Andrew Rannells, who departs in October. Hall will continue the role until January 4, 2015, reports Variety.
This schedule will allow the show to try to capitalize on Hall’s TV popularity during the holiday season on Broadway by bringing in out-of-towners, much like Neil Patrick Harris did on his way to winning the Tony for the same role.
Hall does have Broadway experience. Hall starred in Will Eno’s 2014 Broadway production of the play The Realistic Jones, directed by Sam Gold and co-starring Toni Collette, Tracy Letts, and Marisa Tomei, which did not recoup its investment last season. However, Hall hasn’t done a musical since his stints in Cabaret (in 2000) and Chicago (in 2002).
With Harris in the lead, Hedwig became on of Broadway’s strongest sellers, regularly logging million-dollar weeks — with seven performances a week — in one of the Main Stem’s smaller houses. Receipts with Rannells (The Book of Mormon, Girls) have been more modest but still fairly healthy, with weekly numbers tallying in the $650,000 range.
Rannells finishes his Hedwig gig October 12, ahead of Hall’s first performance in the show October 16. He’ll appear alongside Lena Hall, who won a Tony for her performance as Yitzhak in the musical at the Belasco Theatre.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that Hedwig and the Angry Inch — written by John Cameron Mitchell with music and lyrics by Stephen Trask — centers on Hedwig, an East German transgender rocker who has come to America looking for love and completeness.
Off-Broadway, Hall’s credits include the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Mr. Marmalade, Cymbeline, Macbeth, Timon of Athens, Henry V at the Public Theater/New York Shakespeare Festival, The English Teachers for MCC, the Manhattan Theatre Club’s Corpus Christi, Romeo and Juliet at Center Stage, Rashomon at Williamstown, and Skylight at the Mark Taper Forum.
Hall is still best known for his role in Dexter, a Miami-based police forensics expert moonlighting as a vigilante serial killer, taking out criminals whom he feels have escaped justice. The series lasted eight years on the Showtime network. Hall has been nominated for 27 individual awards, winning the Golden Globe for Best Performer in a Television Series-Drama in 2010.
[Image Via Hollywoodreporter.com]
