hedwig does toronto

Mom: Don't you ever mention that name to me again.

Hansel: But he died for our sins.

With just over two months until Hedwig’s opening night at the Drake, we thought you might want to start getting up to speed on her journey…

The last time Hedwig spent this much time in Toronto was 3 years ago, when she played at the glamorous Great Hall (in The Theatre Centre) as part of a show produced by Ghost Light Productions. In the three years since, she has been on the road: playing dive bars, shrimp buffets and Sizzlers, following Tommy Gnosis as he performs his ‘Tour of Atonement’ to sell-out stadiums across the world. She has recently been spotted in Ottawa, Thunder Bay (apparently they have great sauna-restaurant-boardrooms there), Winnipeg (twice), and Montreal. it was just a matter of time before she found herself back in Toronto.

We were very lucky to find her one night a few months ago, on the corner of Carlton and Church, in a pair of knee-high boots with 6-inch heels… we’re still not sure what she was doing there. She was apparently on a hiatus from touring with her band, The Angry Inch. Word is that Schlatko, her drummer, had some issues with his papers. Having heard that Tommy Gnosis was going to be back in town for a victory lap in January, we offered to help produce her show at the Drake Underground. Amazingly, she agreed, gave us her agent Phyllis Stein’s card, and walked away into the night… or maybe it was a Hyundai with tinted windows.