John Cameron Mitchell Talks Oh, Mary! and His Stoned Hedwig Director’s Commentary

Our next guest, a very talented actor,  writer, filmmaker, and Tony winner,  

you know, is the original star  of Hedwig and The Angry Inch,  

as well as shows like Shrill and Joe Versus Carol.  He's starring in Oh Mary at the Lysene Theater on  

Broadway. Please welcome to the show, my  friend John Cameron Mitchell. Everybody.

Hello, friend. How are you there? I just moved  through a space that was probably a band. Oh,  

yeah. There used to be a band here  and now now it's just a walkway. Now,  

this is very exciting. This is an 11-year  gap between Broadway shows for you. Yes. Uh,  

you were doing Headwig on Broadway 11 years  ago and now you were doing Oh Mary. And how  

is the return to the Broadway grind treating  you? Well, as the oldest Mary. Yes. You were  

the seventh Mary in this show, but you were  the oldest. The oldest Mary. It's a new  

administration. And uh and I will be turning  63 during the run. Wow. Wow. Oh, there it is.  

I mean I mean come on you're a st  you're stunning for 62. Stop it.

By the way, you're stunning. You're stunning for  any age. I'm not going to put any qualifiers on.  

Get out of the sun, everybody. So, uh it but it's  a grind. I feel like people do not appreciate the  

kind of grind it is. Well, I mean head fig was  harder, but this is really hard. Eight shows  

a week. Even rock stars come in and go Beyonce  don't do eight shows a week, right? But it's like,  

you know, you got to be a nun as Ethel Murman  said, uh, when you do the show and so most of my  

time is lying around preparing, resting, watching  reruns of the wire. Yeah, that's a good way to  

prepare. And that means like so when the show's  over, I think also people think like, oh my god,  

everybody probably goes to the bar and celebrates.  But yeah, those days are over. Those are the old  

days. That's Patty Lupone. That's Ela Elaine  Streit. Yeah, they they put that to bed. But  

um you were talking about rock stars, you also  had another person who I feel like as far as