Even without makeup, Andrew Rannells gives great rocker face.
For the latest installment of the New York Times in Performance series, the Hedwig and the Angry Inch star performs an acoustic version of "Midnight Radio" with the Tony Award-winning musical's composer, Stephen Trask, on guitar.
Rannells plays Hedwig, a fictional East German rock singer and "slip of a girly boy" living as a female after a botched gender-reassignment operation.
The out Girls star will play the final performance of his limited engagement October 12. Dexter and Six Feet Under alum Michael C. Hall, taking on his first musical in more than a decade, is scheduled to take over the role October 16 and continue through January 4.
A Tony nominee for his work in The Book of Mormon, Rannells stepped in for Neil Patrick Harris, who won the Tony for Best Actor in a Musical as Hedwig. Lena Hall also earned the Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical as Yitzhak, Hedwig's husband and backup singer, who's desperate to unleash his inner drag diva.
The Broadway premiere of Trask and John Cameron Mitchell's 1998 cult rock musical, which won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical, opened April 22 at the Belasco Theatre and recently recouped its investment. The original cast recording is now available.
See Rannells sing "Midnight Radio" in the video below.
