John Cameron Mitchell
It’s hard not to feel angry and overwhelmed when confronted by injustice. And while many Tennesseans are still reeling over recent anti-LGBTQ legislation, including legislation targeting drag performers, the trailblazing cultural icon John Cameron Mitchell remains dedicated to what he calls “the great antidepressant” — creativity.
“I feel like my main goal lately is getting people in the same room together — entertaining them, bringing thoughts to minds and reminding them that they’re not alone,” he says. “That’s what buoys my spirit these days.”
Of course, Mitchell has been buoying the spirits of die-hard fans for years, whether as the co-creator and star of the groundbreaking genderqueer rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch or, more recently, playing Tiger King’s Joe Exotic in the Peacock series Joe vs. Carole. And in October, the Tony Award-winning artist comes to Nashville for John Cameron Mitchell Sings Out for LGBTQ Justice: A Benefit for the ACLU of Tennessee. The performance is billed as an “unforgettable night of hilarity, campy performances, and unabashed queerness,” and Mitchell will be joined by Hedwig co-creator and composer Stephen Trask and acclaimed cabaret star Amber Martin.
“When these twin laws — the anti-drag bill, and the one barring youth trans care — passed on the same day in Tennessee, I heard from a friend of mine who lives there,” says Mitchell, who currently makes his home in New Orleans. “Of course, the ACLU is very much a part of that ongoing legal strategy, so we wanted to do a benefit for them. You know, it’s such a tired old story. If you go back to the scapegoats of history — meaning queer people, women, immigrants, pretty much anyone that isn’t white — it’s just trying to find someone to blame, some new threat. I’m 60 now, and I’ve seen waves of this under Reagan, Bush and Nixon before that. But we try to counteract it the only way we know how — which is getting people together to have some fun, and to remind ourselves that we’re not alone.”
Mitchell says the OZ performances will follow a similar format to Cassette Roulette — the popular cabaret show he and Amber Martin created together, in which the audience helps choose the songs by spinning an oversized roulette wheel.
“What’s fun about the show is that I might sing a song from Big River, which I did on Broadway. Or from Secret Garden, with Amber as the 11-year-old girl. And then she’ll sing from her country album — songs like ‘I Left My Weed in Texas.’ She’s such fun — she does all these crazy characters, but has a voice that can really back it up. So I’m excited to be doing these two shows at OZ.
“Nashville has always been a great town — an artist’s town,” he adds. “So it’s naturally a more broad-minded place, because art requires broad-mindedness. If it’s just propaganda for one side or another, it’s no longer art. With propaganda you’re being told something. With art, you’re asked to think about something, and bring your own thoughts to it. You have to meet it halfway. That’s what makes it art, and not just agitprop.”
Beyond the music, Mitchell says OZ audiences can expect to hear more about the history of drag, “performance to find out more about yourself,” and the punks he calls “Hedwig’s spirit gods.”
“Hedwig is from a long line of drag and cross-gender performance,” he says, noting that Hedwig and the Angry Inch is really not a trans statement, but more a story of survival. “The character is forced into an operation against their will … and then abandoned by their boyfriend — mutilated and left to die. But the character survives, picks themselves up, uses drag, uses rock ’n’ roll to protect themselves, to find their way into the world. And then actually lets go of that drag and walks naked into the world, as if to say: ‘Take me for what I am. I am a gender of one. I have these scars, but I’m not afraid of them. This is me.’
“Hedwig name-checks Patti Smith and Tina Turner, and Aretha and Yoko and Nico [in the song ‘Midnight Radio’]. And I would also add Little Richard to that list of queer gods. I mean I think we all look to Little Richard, Mae West, Marlene Dietrich — all the people who were crossing boundaries for the sake of finding commonality, and not just to say, ‘Fuck you.’ Sometimes you’ve got to say, ‘Fuck you,’ but other times you say: ‘Come on in — join the party! And if you can’t, I’m sorry for you.’ That’s what drag’s about, and that’s what this show is going to be about.”
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