I was with Darren Criss the night he became a man.  Let’s start at the beginning.  I attended the LA opening night of the national tour of Hedwig and the Angry Inch with some trepidation.  When I first saw Hedwig in 1999, it was at the Henry Fonda Theatre – a venue half the size of (and across the street from) the cavernous Pantages, where it is currently playing.  I also wasn’t sure about Darren’s ability to lead this production.  Yes, he played the role towards the end of the Broadway run, and yes, he’s cute as a button.  But I didn’t know if his winning qualities would be enough to pull off this character.  Also, the e-mails offering $29 tickets made me think that perhaps he’s not quite enough of a draw to have his name above the title.

Most of my fears were somewhat allayed.  Since it was opening night, the house was packed and the energy high.  The conceit behind the spiffy production values works, but the show still loses much of its magic in such a huge venue.  As to Criss, his strong vocals let me know he could more than handle the material.  But what surprised me was his ability to morph into various characters with very specific speech patterns and inflections.  His delivery of surely well-rehearsed ad libs was matched by his fearlessness in embracing silent moments and letting them play out.  As I told him at the after-party, he started out as a cute, talented boy, but in the course of the evening, he became a man.  His performance impressed me so much, I almost didn’t notice his abs during the nearly-naked finale – which you can find on BillyMasters.com.  I highly recommend it (and him).

Days before the opening, West Hollywood honored Darren by crowning him the King of the Halloween Carnaval.  I’m sure his presence in the bedlam that is WeHo on Halloween was a good promotion for the show.  The opening night of Hedwig certainly brought out celebrities, but not the usual crowd.  There was nary a Ruta Lee or Jo Anne Worley to be had!  Instead we got people like John Stamos, Margaret Cho, Taylor Lautner, Ross Mathews, and even Courtney Love.  But what stuck with me was the vision of a very haggard and deranged-looking Demi Moore.  Consider this – how spooky must she have looked for me to say that after seeing Courtney Love???