Photography by Luke Fontana
“I was rehearsing for ‘Midnight Radio’ and I started to tear up a little bit,” Darren Criss tells Out. “I didn’t bawl or anything, but I got kind of choked up, and kept it to myself. The song is very anthemic. I get emotional even thinking about it — thinking of all the people out there like me who looked at something like this show and felt connected to something greater than themselves. The fact that I get to convey that back to them is really gratifying — a little overwhelming, frankly.”
Styling by Michael Cook. Fashion Assistants: Manolo Morales, Tommy Jefferson, Gaving Ramiscal. Groomer: Angel Di Carlo. Tank top by Dior Homme
“He grew up in the gayest city in the world, and it’s rubbed off,” John Cameron Mitchell, who co-created Hedwig and the Angry Inch, says. “He’s the sweetest, hippest straight queer boy on the block.”
Suit and shirt by Marc Jacobs.
“Hedwig was sort of fish food for us,” Criss says, his exuberant charm mixed with a quiet, yet keen, focus. “It was candy. There was an obvious attraction to the subversive and subcultural.”
Tank Top by Dior Homme
“He’s a genius, virtuoso, prodigy kind of a person,” says Stephen Trask, who wrote the music and lyrics for Hedwig. “That’s what I thought the first time I ever saw him on Glee. He was just of a different caliber.”
Tank top by Dior Homme. Jeans by Polo Ralph Lauren. Shoes by Hermès
“A lot of things have been hugely shifting in my life,” explains Criss, who made a pit stop at his family home shortly before starting rehearsals for Hedwig. “Forget the career that I’ve gotten to have in the past few years. I don’t care who you are — looking through your teenage years is crazy,” he says. “I was getting in touch with a part of myself that I hadn’t really thought about in years.”
Shirt by Acne. Pants by Valentino. Shoes by Hermès
"I think Glee, obviously, has pushed my relationship with the gay community at large in a really cool way," Criss says. "That seems a natural extension of my San Franciscan progressive nature. It’s a community that has embraced me and a community that I’ve embraced.”
Suit and shirt by Marc Jacobs.
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