HEDWIG's Taye Diggs Says Challenging Role is 'Everything I Ever Wished For'

In an all-new interview in today's New York Times, Taye Diggs reflects on his upcoming gender-bending role in Broadway's Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The actor steps into the role, vacated Sunday night by Darren Criss, beginning tomorrow, July 22nd.

'I was young, and back then, transgender scared me, and there was this man onstage with a crazy wig," reveals the 'Rent' star of the first time he watched HEDWIG on stage. However, as he matured he began to see things in a different light. "Since I was a kid, I've been trying to wean myself off of seeing things as right and wrong and black and white and good and bad. And Hedwig was a mixture of all that stuff."

Diggs also praises his ex-wife Idina Menzel and her ability to balance stardom and motherhood. 'I tip my hat to Idina. She's been doing it." he says. "I look at her with even more respect and a little bit of awe. TV is like a walk in the park," he says, comparing her recent career to his television role in the crime drama, "Murder in the First."

Now that he has the opportunity to put his own spin on the role, he plans to give it his all. 'This is me telling myself, 'O.K., bitch, put your money where your mouth is. You've been telling agents and your best friends - I told Idina - 'I want a chance to show everybody everything. I can dance and I can sing, and everybody knows I can act." He vows, 'They're going to end up saying something good. 'Cause I'm not gonna mess up all three."

Read the article in full here.

Diggs will take over the lead role in the 2014 Tony Award winning Best Musical Revival for a limited 12-week engagement starting Wednesday, July 22 at the Belasco Theatre (111 West 44th Street). Hedwig will mark Diggs' first New York stage role since the 2005 revival of A Soldier's Play. He is currently in production for the second season of Steven Bochco's crime drama "Murder in the First," which will premiere Monday, June 8 on TNT.

He made his Broadway debut in 1994 in the Tony Award-winning revival ofCarousel. Soon after, he landed the role of Benny in in the landmark musicalRent, a role he recreated in the 2005 film version. Diggs other New York stage credits include Chicago, Wicked, and Andrew Lippa's The Wild Party. His many film and television credits include How Stella Got Her Groove Back, Go, Chicago,The Best Man, its follow up The Best Man Holiday, and six seasons on ABC's hit drama "Private Practice."

Hedwig and the Angry Inch, with book by John Cameron Mitchell and music and lyrics by Stephen Trask, directed byMichael Mayer, also stars Rebecca Naomi Jones as Yitzhak. The production has received rave reviews and is winner of four 2014 TONY AWARDS and won Best Musical Revival by the Tony Awards, the Drama Desk Awards, Drama League Awards, and Outer Critics Circle Awards. The Grammy nominated Original Broadway Cast album forHedwig and the Angry Inch is available from Atlantic Records.