John Cameron Mitchell Preview
Tomorrow on my YouTube show, I speak with John Cameron Mitchell, the Tony Award-winning creator and star of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, about Bowie’s enduring influence on his life and work, as well as his upcoming Bowie-themed stage performances in New York and Australia. Mitchell discusses Bowie not simply as a musical influence, but as a figure who helped redefine identity, theatricality, performance and personal reinvention for generations of artists working across disciplines.
Mitchell will appear June 26 at The Town Hall in New York, where he will present John Cameron Mitchell & Friends. Later this year, he will bring I’m Afraid of Americans: A Bowie Song Cycle to Australia, with performances at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre on September 6 and Melbourne Recital Centre on September 9.
According to Australian news outlet Noise11, I’m Afraid of Americans is a theatrical concert conceived and performed by Mitchell that blends Bowie’s music with personal storytelling. The production draws on songs including “Station to Station,” “Queen Bitch,” “Sweet Thing,” “Hallo Spaceboy,” “Fame,” “Quicksand” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide,” exploring themes of identity, alienation, reinvention and resistance.
Mitchell’s connection to Bowie extends back to the early days of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Bowie was an early supporter of the production and later invested in its Los Angeles run. Mitchell recalled the first time Bowie saw the show in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald: “He came to the show in the first incarnation, and it was very exciting.”
That encounter led to one of Mitchell’s most cherished memories. As he told People, after a later meeting at Bowie’s rehearsal studio, “David kind of swiveled his lighthouse smile upon me and said, ‘John, you got it right.’ And I was like: Wow, I can die now.”
Mitchell told the Sydney Morning Herald that Bowie’s artistic fearlessness remains difficult to match. “Bowie would go to very strange places, and we would go along with him,” he said. “He would try stuff that didn’t always pay off, but he tried it.”
According to People, Bowie’s admiration for Hedwig went further than financial support. Mitchell revealed that Bowie once approached him about adapting Ziggy Stardust for the stage. “He actually asked me to look at [adapting] Ziggy Stardust for the stage, which my one great regret is I didn’t do it because I was burned out on Hedwig,” Mitchell said.
Mitchell also recently appeared as a featured vocalist in Blackstar Symphony alongside Donny McCaslin and other Bowie collaborators. Speaking to San Francisco news outlet 48 Hills about Bowie’s influence, Mitchell said, “He was my guide.” He added that Bowie “created space for outsiders, especially those who were gender nonconforming.”
In our conversation, Mitchell reflects on these experiences, discusses Bowie’s continuing relevance, and explains why Bowie’s work remains such a powerful source of inspiration decades after it was created.