The Drag Race runner-up takes centre stage in a revival of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a rock’n’roll tale of identity and acceptance she describes as a ‘really, really gay Rocky Horror Show’
It was in 2007, while working in Ibiza, that the drag queen Divina De Campo finally got to watch the 2001 film Hedwig and the Angry Inch, thanks to a colleague who had the DVD. Before then, she had unsuccessfully tried to persuade her then boyfriend to watch it with her on their weekend trips to Blockbuster. “I loved it, I just thought the whole thing was incredible,” she recalls. “And a real epiphany, like, how have I wasted these five years of not seeing this amazing film?” Ever since, she has wanted to play the role of Hedwig, a genderqueer rocker – even cheekily tweeting that she would be up for it after coming runner-up on RuPaul’s Drag Race UK in 2019.
And now, it’s finally happening. Next month, she will take on the role of Hedwig – her first major lead in a musical – for a revival of the show that the film was based on, at Leeds Playhouse. “It’s like putting on a new coat, but one I’ve really wanted for a long time,” she says. Speaking after a day of rehearsals, she and director Jamie Fletcher – who have known each other for more than 18 years – look far from washed out. Instead, they are animated and bubbly, riffing off one another and frequently erupting into laughter. “We’re going for a curr-eh!” De Campo says excitedly exaggerating her Yorkshire accent, when I ask what they’re doing after our hour-long interview. Then she tilts back her shaved head, letting out a euphoric cackle, something she tends to do a lot.
