Taye Diggs returned tonight to a New York stage after a ten-year absence to star as the title character in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” the Tony winning best musical revival. The sixth Hedwig since the revival opened in April, 2014, Diggs is scheduled to perform the demanding role through October 11, 2015.

This is Diggs’ fifth Broadway production. He made his Broadway debut in 1994 at age 23 in Carousel, then made a splash in the original cast of Rent, followed by turns in Chicago and Wicked.

Diggs has become a familiar face on screen. TV: “Murder in the First” and “Private Practice.” Film:​ The Best Man, Rent,Chicago, Brown Sugar,​ and How Stella Got Her Groove Back.

But he’s yearned to play Hedwig for a long time, he’s told interviewers.  “I want a chance to show everybody everything. I can dance and I can sing, and everybody knows I can act…But I didn’t think it would ever happen. I assumed that nobody would ever have the open-mindedness to cast this character black.”

 “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”began on Broadway with Neil Patrick Harris in the role, followed by Andrew Rannells, Michael C. Hall, John Cameron Mitchell (who co-wrote the musical with Stephen Trask), and Darren Criss.

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