http://www.anniekevans.com/drag

FILM 1365: HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH

TRIVIA: The footage of Hedwig on The Rosie O'Donnell Show (1996) was shot when "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" was just an off-Broadway musical as a promotion for the show. When Rosie O'Donnell holds up the Hedwig CD, it is a copy of the original off-Broadway cast recording.

The story depicted in the song "Origin of Love" is from Plato's "Symposium," in which Aristophanes gives a speech about love being a product of the need to reunite with one's other half after being split into two, as punishment for conspiring to usurp the gods of Olympus.

Before it was a film and a musical at the Jane Street Theater, John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask created the character "Hedwig". Mitchell donned drag for the first time speaking in character and telling Hedwig's story between songs, written and played by Stephen Trask. This was the first "drag performance act" that had a storyline, live singing and a live band with original material.

Film 806: Hairspray

Trivia: The role of Edna Turnblad was originally written for famed transsexual Christine Jorgensen. However, when the role of Tracy had to be rewritten, John Waters also rewrote the role of Edna in order to keep his friend and muse Divine in the production.

"Tilted Acres" was based on "Gwynn Oak Amusement Park" in Baltimore County, MD, where racial problems occurred. The scenes were shot at Dorney Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

Ricki Lake began rapidly losing weight due to the intense dance lessons she had to take for the film. She reportedly had to "eat like crazy" in order to stay plump.

John Waters' first PG-rated film.

A scene was filmed where Tracey finds cockroaches in her hair. It was based on an urban legend about a girl whose brain is eaten by cockroaches that were living in her beehive hairdo. While it never made it into the final cut, it explains all the references to roaches in the latter part of the film.

Film 798: Divine Trash

The life and times of Baltimore film maker and midnight movie pioneer, John Waters. Intercut with a 1972 interview of Waters are clips from his first films and recent interviews with his parents, his brother, Divine's mom, actors and crew, other directors, film critics, a film curator, psychologists, and Maryland's last censor, who shudders at the memory of Waters's pictures.