Mimi Imfurst Stars In 20th Anniversary Production Of ‘Hedwig’

Mimi Imfurst has lived on in drag infamy since appearing on season three of RuPaul’s Drag Race and season one of RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars. Fans may remember her from that time she tossed India Ferrah over her shoulder during a lip sync for their lives or from when she took the brunt of Shangela’s sugar daddy monologue and drink toss because she’s “not that kind of girl.”

But this June, Imfurst is proving gonna show what kind of girl she really is in a special 20th anniversary production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The drag queen will play the titular lead role at Ruba Club in Philadelphia.

Excited to play HEDWIG in the HEDWIG and the ANGRY INCH! Performance begin June 1 https://t.co/g5BZZuZKmu @HedwigOnBway rocked my world. pic.twitter.com/8WLYsgWdqb

— Mimi Imfurst (@MimiImfurst) March 13, 2018

In case you haven’t seen it (which you really should), it’s about a trans rock musician’s journey from West Berlin to America during the Cold War. From a botched gender reassignment surgery to a brief marriage with a GI and an affair with a teenage music prodigy, the musical is one of the greatest queer stories of our time.

“When I was 15, my family disowned me for being gay,” Imfurst said. “I was living on the streets, and my only possessions were the clothes on my back, a Discman, and the original Off-Broadway cast recording of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Those songs, in many ways, kept me going during the most difficult time in my life. Now twenty years later, it brings me full circle to bring to life this incredible story and live in these songs that once saved me in unimaginable ways.”

The Off-Broadway musical opened in 1998 at Jane Street Theatre in New York, at the helm of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask. Mitchell immortalized the lead role in both the Off-Broadway production and again in the 2001 film. Since then, multiple actors have taken on the role. In 2014, a Broadway production of the show premiered, seeing Neil Patrick Harris, Andrew Rannells, Michael C Hall, Darren Criss, and Taye Diggs alternate the role, with Mitchell returning for a run as Hedwig.

Watch Mimi Imfurst star in the 20th anniversary production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Ruba Club in Philadelphia, June 1-24. Tickets are available online.