Alumni of the Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department are in the cast and production team of Haven Chicago‘s new production of the groundbreaking rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The show – Haven Chicago’s final production before shutting down this year – stars Columbia College alum Tyler Anthony Smith ’17, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s BA Program in Acting, as Hedwig Robinson, a gender-queer East German lead singer in a rock and roll band – a role originally played by the show’s co-author John Cameron Mitchell.

Haven’s Hedwig  was praised as “sweaty, sexy, sinuous, and unapologetic” by the Chicago Reader‘s theatre editor/critic, Columbia College Chicago Theatre Department alum Kerry Reid ’87, who wrote in her review published July 18, 2024: “It’s a riotously fun time, and Smith in particular—a celebrated writer-director-performer in their own right—works the crowd with devil-may-care insouciance and quick improvisational chops.”And Kevin Curran, writing for the online site Chicago Theatre Review, wrote: “Tyler Anthony Smith portrays Hedwig with the right balance of rage and vulnerability and has impeccable comic timing. A vital part of any production of Hedwig is the crowd work with the audience. Smith does a fantastic job of responding in the moment without breaking the flow of the show.”

As previously reported in this blog, the show’s production team includes Columbia College alums Kirsten Baity ’21, who graduated Summa cum Laude with a BA in Theatre with a Playwriting concentration, and Leo Batutis ’20, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s Writing for Performance program with a Minor in Theatre Directing. Baity is the show’s intimacy choreographer, and Batutis is the assistant director. In addition, Columbia College alum Julia Farrell Diefenbach ’15, a graduate of the Theatre Department’s Theatre Directing program with a Minor in Stage Combat, is Haven Chicago’s director of marketing and social media. And Carol Cohen, a former student in the Columbia College Theatre Department’s Theatre Design program, is Haven Chicago’s co-founder and president of the company’s board of directors.