New Hedwig Star Darren Criss on His Advantage Over Neil Patrick Harris & Just Wanting to ‘Be a Bitch’

Broadway.com Audience Choice Award winner (and Broadway.com super fan) Darren Criss returns to the Great White Way as our favorite internationally ignored song stylist in Hedwig and the Angry Inch on April 29. The Glee star recently spoke with Out.com about slipping into the wig and heels—and just how it all makes him feel (think Meredith Brooks).

“You suddenly look at yourself in the mirror,” he says, “and you just want to be a bitch. It’s your game face—it really is your game face.” In case you didn’t know, Criss gives very good bitchy game face while in glittery eye shadow and lipstick. The sexual liberation of a transsexual rock goddess is a far cry from his Broadway debut as the straight-laced bowtie-donning Finch in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying.

Game face aside, Criss feels that he already has an advantage over his predecessors, including Tony-winning Hedwig Neil Patrick Harris. Harris may be more of a traditional song-and-dance man than Criss, but Criss says he’s no stranger to “screaming my face off” in front of a crowd. “[Harris] was saying he really had to learn to sing on the mic,” Criss explains. “I don’t want to sound cocky because I have my things to learn, but I’m so relieved…this is right up my wheelhouse.”

You can catch Criss, as well as new Yitzhak Rebecca Naomi Jones, in Hedwig and the Angry Inch at the Belasco Theatre. Make sure to bring your game face.