Treasure Treasure stars in Hedwig’s triumphant return to Pittsburgh — and she’s taking the band downtown.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch Rocks Pittsburgh Again Starring Treasure Treasure

The audacious musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch begins with a confrontational introduction: “Ladies and gentlemen, whether you like it or not: Hedwig!”

The title character, a drag-coded punk rocker with a defiant streak, then conquers the stage with the show opener, Tear Me Down. The song is a statement of intent: No circumstances, no societal rejection, and certainly no audience can stop Hedwig.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch, produced by City Theatre from May 2-June 7 at the Greer Cabaret Theater, was created by multi-hyphenate artist John Cameron Mitchell (who wrote the show and created the character) and Stephen Trask (who wrote the music and lyrics). Hedwig first prowled stages at punk and drag clubs, then off-Broadway; a movie and a Broadway run followed.

An All-Out Show-Stopper in Pittsburgh

Now, Hedwig returns to Pittsburgh to command — nay, demand — attention at the Greer Cabaret Theater. Staged as a rock concert, Hedwig and the Angry Inch recounts its star’s journey from East Berlin to glam-rock obscurity. Having endured a botched gender-transition surgery to flee her country, Hedwig has since been used and rejected by a young rock idol. Now, she’s leading her deadpan band, the Angry Inch, to play in dives and restaurants.

The sleek lines and curated cocktails of the Greer bear little resemblance to the Jane Street Theatre, a misfit venue in New York’s Meatpacking District and the first home of the show. So: How did Hedwig get to the Greer?

“There’s something about great art that has relevance no matter where you stage it,” says Clare Drobot, artistic director of City Theatre. “I think our audiences love our South Side home, but the Greer is such a dynamic venue … It really does feel like a chance to open us up to new audiences. We hear so often that City Theatre is the best-kept secret on the South Side; we don’t want to be a best-kept secret!”

A Start in 2003, A Return in 2026

City Theatre first staged Hedwig and the Angry Inch in 2003. Anthony Rapp, best known for originating the role of Mark Cohen in Rent, played Hedwig. Drobot says she hears again and again from patrons who recall attending.

“City doesn’t [generally] do reimaginings or restagings,” she adds. “If you’re going to revisit a production, having an opportunity to do it in a new venue felt really exciting artistically.” (Drobot adds that this production was conceived alongside Monteze Freeland, her former co-artistic director; Freeland left City Theatre in 2025.)

Treasure Treasure Embodies Hedwig

Stepping into the ostentatious heels worn by Mitchell and Rapp — not to mention luminaries such as Neil Patrick Harris, Michael C. Hall, and Taye Diggs — is no easy task. Fortunately, performer, playwright, and artist Treasure Treasure has the right mindset.

“I’ve always felt that, whatever crowd I’m in front of, it’s life and death,” Treasure says. “Something kicks in and I will survive — I’m being thrown out to the wolves and I will survive … Sometimes, it’s surrender; a moment emerges and it’s like, ‘We’re on a journey together now.’”

Treasure, who memorably played Hamlet in 2023 for Quantum Theatre, worked with Trask at the Atlantic Theater Company. A longtime fan of the show, she feels “like I was always supposed to do it. And I don’t entirely know why; I’m still finding it.

“We are all in transition. Not only [in terms of] gender, but our identities are shifting all the time; you can’t pin a human being down. You can’t build a wall. There is no binary; there is no clear separation … That is nature, to accept that you cannot tear me down because I am constantly in transit.”

Why Hedwig Still Matters Today

The character of Hedwig, as Mitchell put it in 2014, “[is] a gender of one, and that is accidentally so beautiful.” Director Robert Ramirez says the character has always been vitally relevant — but carries added resonance in 2026.

“Right now, this time that we’re living in politically, socially, I think queer art is really important … I think it’s important to stay loud and to stay clear about what matters to you.” Ramirez, the head of Carnegie Mellon’s School of Drama, has “been in love with this show for quite some time,” having seen the original off-Broadway run.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch has not endured solely for its cultural commentary, Ramirez stresses: It’s exceptionally entertaining, as funny as it is moving. You can’t deny its power strictly as a piece of drama — or the power of the music in and of itself.”

Story by Sean Collier
Photography by Laura Petrilla

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