There's something utterly delicious about Neil Patrick Harris' character choices, jumping from a swashbuckling, mega-hetero stud on the television sitcom How I Met Your Mother to a playing a transsexual German chanteuse in the Broadway premiere of the previously Off-Broadway Hedwig & the Angry Inch. As far the cult musical goes, this graduation to the Great White Way is the transgender version of "you've come a long way baby," but pathos pays the price for this mainstream, post-"It Gets Better" celebration. Harris' performances of bittersweet numbers like "Wicked Little Town" or "The Origin of Love" are more sweet than bitter, especially compared to the mix of heartache, hope, self-love, and self-loathing that John Cameron Mitchell's Hedwig delivered in the film version. That said, Harris blisters on the small penis anthem "Angry Inch," kicks his cha-cha heels high on "Sugar Daddy," and delivers "Wig in a Box" like a beehive-wearing champion ascending on a Swarovski Crystal-encrusted riser. It's more Dr. Frank-N-Furter than Freud-case, and that Harris wins with this Ziggy Stardust-sized performance at a Joel Grey volume is a testament to both him and the richness of the Hedwig character. Strange that Broadway came up with the more Hollywood Hedwig while Tinseltown delivered the doomed and damned one, but this fable has long legs. Long, fishnetted legs. A1 America the Beautiful A2 Tear Me Down A3 The Origin of Love A4 Deutschlandlied A5 Sugar Daddy A6 When Love Explodes (love Theme From "Hurt Locker: The Musical" A7 Angry Inch B1 Wig in a Box B2 Wicked Little Town B3 The Long Grift B4 Hedwig's Lament B5 Exquisite Corpse B6 Wicked Little Town (reprise) B7 Midnight Radio
