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| Stephen Trask |
After many years as the greeter at a popular mainstream rock
music club, Kenny's Castaways, Don Hill started booking shows at the
short-lived Cat Club in 1984. By
1993 he was ready to open his own club, Don
Hill's, in Greenwich Village and later in SoHo, with a hit formula -- create
a hot nightclub that would attract both trendy rockers and drag queens. Hill
died suddenly in 2011, and the club closed a few weeks later.
Squeezebox was among several weekly theme nights at Don
Hill's. At these drag events, composer Stephen
Trask and artist John Cameron
Mitchell developed a theater act combining live rock and drag, Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Eventually moving
out beyond Don Hill's, Hedwig and the
Angry Inch was initially had limited success as an off-Broadway show and
film. The film later developed a larger cult following through DVD circulation.
The rock musical was revived on Broadway in 2014 and won four Tony Awards.
Meanwhile, the club of its genesis reopened in September as
the Hills NYC, and Trask and the
Broadway cast returned to where it all began to perform a tribute to the
original club's founder on December 7. "Celebrating Don Hill—A Night of
Live Music" featured Trask, who originally birthed the songs on that stage
with his then-band Cheaters, and
cast members Michael C. Hall, Lena Hall, Miriam Shor, and Shannon Conley.
The house band was Tits of Clay (Tim Mislock, Justin Craig, Matt Duncan,
Peter Yanowitz), the off-stage alter
ego of the band performing as the Angry Inch in the Broadway production. Most
of the one-hour set was comprised of covers of punk rock songs, ending with a
series of Hedwig songs. The concert also included guests David Johansen (who sang "Funky But Chic" from his days
with the New York Dolls) and Fred Schneider (who sang "Planet
Claire" by the B-52's). The
event benefitted Road Recovery, a New York-based nonprofit dedicated to helping
young people battle addiction and other adversities by harnessing the influence
of entertainment industry professionals who have confronted similar crises and
now wish to share their experience, knowledge, and resources.
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| Fred Schneider |
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| Lena Hall |
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| David Johansen |
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| Michael C. Hall |
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