Latest news with #Hedwig
India Today
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- India Today
Why Gen-Z and millennials can't stop buying toys, plushies? Kidulting explained
As kids, we all wanted to fast forward our lives into adulthood and just be old enough to be able to make decisions by ourselves, have the freedom to make plans with friends at night, travel, and more. It's only when we actually hit that phase that we think, "adulting is hard, I want to go back to being a kid."advertisementSomewhere between going out to play every evening and now paying bills, we all grow up. But one thing that echoes across adult conversations is the idea of keeping the inner child alive. And well, let's just admit it: trust millennials and Gen Z to show you if you look around at the current craze, it's the oddly cute (or not) Labubu dolls hanging by the side of designer purses, adults sleeping with plushies (sometimes those with heartbeats), or rushing to stores to get their hands on limited-edition cartoon collectables – they are all a testament to kidulting culture. View this post on Instagram A post shared by @stitchholder_ Or maybe you know a 33-year-old being super excited about the Miniso X Harry Potter collab and buying that Hedwig plushie? Yes, we know that purchase isn't for a kid but an adult, and it is umm... is what makes up the 'kidult' phenomenon, because who said that adulting means leaving your childhood behind?Kidults - Rediscovering joy one toy at a timeKidult, as the name says, is about adults who enjoy indulging in the child-like j(t)oys of might seem like just another viral term cooked hot off the internet, but it actually dates back to the 1980s. It first appeared in Times on 11 August 1985 in the article 'Coming Soon: TV's New Boy Network.' Back then, it was intended with dual meanings - one, a child who pretends to be mature, and two, a childish adult. The latter stayed. It 'refers to a social phenomenon in which a growing generation of adults enjoys having fun.'Therefore, the only thing 'new' about kidulting is that it's no longer just a phase or a trendy term but has smoothly slid into the DMs of the youth. Believe it or not, the data says to market research company Circana, the kidult demographic is a key driver in the toy industry. Different sizes of Hedwig-shaped plushies (Photo: Instagram/ Miniso India) 'Adults (18+ years) have been the fastest growing age group in the toy market over the last two years with a 5.5% increase in sales, while adolescents (12–17 years) grew by 3.3%. In sharp contrast, sales for children have fallen significantly since 2021, with spend-per-child also declining,' a 2024 report aged 18 and above are now considered the pivotal age group for the toy industry in the US market alone. So, the only rightful question to ask now is: why and how?Different reports and experts from the field have highlighted the key trigger points driving the expansion of this demographic: nostalgia, collectability, fandoms, and film/entertainment collaborations. LEGO, Mattel, Pokemon, Marvel, DC, anime - these are the prominent names that repeatedly come up in studies exploring the kidult box office blockbusters to pop culture, entertainment is clearly influencing the toy market. A report by License Global forecasted that 'toys continue to be a core part of the forward strategy for brand owners looking to engage audiences via the toy aisle next year.' This toy-making company has a specific section for adults (Photo: Enough of the numbers, there is a psychological purview are certain psychology-backed standpoints around why this cultural shift is happening.A trip down nostalgia lane offers relief from the everyday trials and tribulations, whether personal, professional or even global. No wonder, nostalgia means big money in the marketing world! Whether it's turning to puzzles, comfort plushies or even that one prized Goku figurine, these toys become safe spaces and help to reduce stress as Symonds, an executive director at Circana, spoke to the BBC about how the COVID-19 lockdown also played a key role in boosting kidult culture.'When the world shut people out, the privileged had the time to revisit the little joys of life. Everyone rediscovered the joys of doing puzzles, or playing games in their home, or collecting products that they particularly liked. It's actually continued since then,' she 'adult money' - a rather popular term on social media for spending self-earned money on things that bring innate joy - also enables kidulting. People often take to social media platforms to flaunt their 'adult money purchases', which mind you, are not luxury watches or cars but quirky, toy-like things. View this post on Instagram A post shared by LIUNIC ON THINGS (@liuniconthings)Not a phase but a lifestyleadvertisementPerceptions and prescriptions evolve with time. A 30-something adult playing with Pokemon cards or buying a Hello Kitty dress might have once been perceived as childish and prescribed to 'grow up.' But today, it's not just a phase or a pastime. Turning to nostalgia is now a lifestyle. advertisementThe fashion world has got its hold on Disney-themed collections like Kanika Goyal. Fashion runways have also lately been replete with models walking with soft toys. Hello Kitty and other plushies are now adult security blankets. Soft toys on runways have become a prominent aspect in the fashion industry (Photo: Getty Image) advertisementMillennials and Gen Z are now seeking out cafes and gatherings to indulge in some old-school board game challenge fury! (Yes, Uno gets fiery because no one agrees on the rules!) People are now enjoying hanging out in cafes with board games, cards and other things that evoke nostalgia (Photo: Getty Image) For Gen Z and millennials, it's about reclaiming a peace that's lost in the hustle. It's no longer corny or childish, it's a culture.
Sydney Morning Herald
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
In a show for misfits, Seann Miley Moore revels in the power of Hedwig
In the hot, humid almost subterranean sweatiness of an Adelaide summer's night, actor and singer Seann Miley Moore has jumped from the stage of wild rock-fuelled musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch mid-show to prowl the audience aisles. It's a full-house. Rows of perspiring people, many rhapsodically seat-dancing to the live five-piece stage band's performance of the show's thrashing score, some jiggling in blonde wigs and bejewelled denim similar to Miley Moore's costume and wide croissant-like tresses, implore them to come their way. As the show's lead, the East German genderqueer character Hedwig, who has asked us, 'How did some slip of a girlyboy from communist East Berlin become the internationally ignored song stylist barely standing before you?' in the show's opening monologue, Moore accepts their pleas. 'Honey,' they say, leaning towards one person dressed in tight gauzy black. They jump to standing. Miley Moore leans closer. Suddenly, a pash, long and deep and entirely unplanned for the audience member, ensues between them. The crowd roars. Miley Moore purrs a guttural 'Whoo!' and the show pulses on. Such is the stage-spilling, passion-inducing and tune-throbbingly raw spectacle of the new Australian production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, produced by GWB Entertainment and Andrew Henry Presents and heading for Melbourne and Sydney after its premiere at the 2025 Adelaide Festival. The next morning, Miley Moore, fresh from a lunch with the South Australian governor, and licking a green ice block in 40-degree heat, says such spontaneous performer-audience moments (Hedwig fans are so passionate they have their own name – 'Hedheads') are to be expected in the show's three-city season. 'That's the power of Hedwig, honey, the power of the wig,' they say. 'They're breathing it all in.' Miley Moore, a contestant on The Voice who went on to star in Miss Saigon, says they are connected heart and soul to the live concert nature of this highly immersive production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. 'It's absolute pride and power up there,' they say. 'It's a rock 'n' roll show, a pride show. It is music. The audience are involved. I'm involved. It's hot and heavy in there. You absolutely feel it. It's been exhilarating, confronting as all hell up there and just such a transformative experience for me. 'This show is an absolute beacon of liberation. It's a trailblazer of queer cinema, queer musical theatre. It's a beacon of such queer spirit, non-binary spirit, trans spirit, of someone finding their true selves. 'It's an absolute liberation for the person you're meant to be in this world.' With text by John Cameron Mitchell and lyrics by Stephen Trask, Hedwig and the Angry Inch – born from a character created in downtown New York clubs in the 1990s and known for a cult 2001 movie (also starring Mitchell) – debuted as a musical off Broadway in 1998. Productions have run in almost 20 countries since, including a multi-Tony Award-winning 2014 Broadway show starring Neil Patrick Harris and, more recently, Mitchell's stripped back 2019 production, The Origin of Love Tour: The Songs and Stories of Hedwig, which they also starred in. In Australia Hedwig and the Angry Inch premiered in 2006, with iOTA winning several awards in the lead role. An aborted 2020 production was to have starred Hugh Sheridan. Blending punk, blues, heavy metal and rock 'n roll, the musical is Hedwig telling her story. Forced into botched gender reassignment surgery as a way to marry an American soldier and flee Berlin, she is left with a dysfunctional mound of flesh, the 'angry inch' (described as having 'a scar running down it like a sideways grimace on an eyeless face' in the musical's song Angry Inch). When we meet Hedwig she is performing a low-rent gig with her band, The Angry Inch, as the US concert tour of rock star Tommy Gnosis plays nearby (heard when Hedwig opens a door on-set). Gnosis collaborated musically with Hedwig before fame (his success comes from those songs) and began a relationship, but he has abandoned her. Aiding Hedwig during her tour is a surly Croatian Jewish drag queen, Yitzhak, played by Adam Noviello, with whom she has a toxic co-dependency. Noviello, who has a long-term love for the film and musical, sees himself in its themes. 'To me, the show, film and the character of Hedwig have always represented the in-betweenness of human beings and of gender, music and expression,' they say. 'Personally, I feel like I've spent my whole career and my whole life on that spectrum. 'The misfits, the losers, we've always felt like that growing up and in our careers.' Seann Miley Moore 'Hedwig is one of those rare beauties of a role where as gender-diverse people, and as trans people and as artists, we see ourselves. She represents our otherness and our fabulousness and our traumas and our battles. So, she's a very big deal for us.' Miley Moore agrees by singing from the song Midnight Radio in the show's finale. ' The misfits, the losers, we've always felt like that growing up and in our careers,' they say. 'But, to do it in this, it's two queens colliding and queer excellence on that stage and we both feel absolute pride and power up there. 'And we're both Scorpios so it's hot.' The musical's songs, from Wig in a Box to Tear Me Down, The Wicked Inch and The Origin of Love, lead much of the show, swinging from full body guttural rock to heart-rending emotional sorrow. In Adelaide's aptly named Queens Theatre, Midnight Radio soars to its ending – ' All the misfits, and the losers/Well you know you're rock and rollers/Spinning to your rock and roll/Lift up your hands ' – bringing some audience members to tears while waving their arms in the warm muggy air. This physical connection to Hedwig begins long before the show's ruched powder blue circular curtain rises above the stage. In Adelaide, a whole trailer park, with wooden refreshment booths under lines of pegged washing, was built outside the theatre as a nod to Hedwig's on-tour life living in a mobile home between gigs. Audience members could visit her caravan, filled with personal effects and memorabilia, before watching a pre-show bar show. Co-directors Shane Anthony and Dino Dimitriadis say this set-up – also planned for Melbourne and Sydney venues – is about transcending boundaries of audience, cast and the stage. 'The show feels big in its themes, big in its appeal to love, big in its appeal to identity and self-searching, big in its appeal to cultures and across different continents,' Anthony says. 'We wanted to make that concrete for the audience, both in the immersive experience provided before the show, but also inside the venue.' Anthony, who vividly recalls seeing the 2014 Broadway production starring Harris, believes Hedwig and the Angry Inch affects people deeply whoever they are. 'It lands in your DNA in a really exciting way,' he says. 'It hits you. You don't immediately understand it, but it taps into something that's more transcendent, more universal, more about the human condition. 'John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask have created something that mines truth and authenticity with characters in a way that perhaps a lot of musicals don't,' he says. 'It's about searching for love and it's done in an incredibly poetic way. 'Those songs are poems. They're explosive, they're dynamic, and I think they resonate with any audience member who's wanting to find love.' As their ice-blocks melt and the sun beats on in Adelaide, Miley Moore and Noviello echo Anthony's words. 'As much as the show is built to and will empower the queer community, it's absolutely a universal story,' Noviello says. 'So much of Hedwig's journey has her caught in a cycle of abuse and now she decides to end that. 'As the show progresses, she's choosing goodness, she's choosing wholeness and choosing love going forward and that's all of our story. We all have to make that decision within ourselves to lead with love and kindness. It's not taught to everyone. 'As much as Hedwig is for queer folks, her story is absolutely for everyone.' Miley Moore lets out a whoop before licking drips of ice-block off their arm. 'And who doesn't love rock and roll baby?' they say. 'Whatever the temperature is, hot or cold, we're dealing with all the elements, all the emotions in there.' They mime a lingering kiss. 'On and off the stage.'
The Age
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Age
In a show for misfits, Seann Miley Moore revels in the power of Hedwig
In the hot, humid almost subterranean sweatiness of an Adelaide summer's night, actor and singer Seann Miley Moore has jumped from the stage of wild rock-fuelled musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch mid-show to prowl the audience aisles. It's a full-house. Rows of perspiring people, many rhapsodically seat-dancing to the live five-piece stage band's performance of the show's thrashing score, some jiggling in blonde wigs and bejewelled denim similar to Miley Moore's costume and wide croissant-like tresses, implore them to come their way. As the show's lead, the East German genderqueer character Hedwig, who has asked us, 'How did some slip of a girlyboy from communist East Berlin become the internationally ignored song stylist barely standing before you?' in the show's opening monologue, Moore accepts their pleas. 'Honey,' they say, leaning towards one person dressed in tight gauzy black. They jump to standing. Miley Moore leans closer. Suddenly, a pash, long and deep and entirely unplanned for the audience member, ensues between them. The crowd roars. Miley Moore purrs a guttural 'Whoo!' and the show pulses on. Such is the stage-spilling, passion-inducing and tune-throbbingly raw spectacle of the new Australian production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, produced by GWB Entertainment and Andrew Henry Presents and heading for Melbourne and Sydney after its premiere at the 2025 Adelaide Festival. The next morning, Miley Moore, fresh from a lunch with the South Australian governor, and licking a green ice block in 40-degree heat, says such spontaneous performer-audience moments (Hedwig fans are so passionate they have their own name – 'Hedheads') are to be expected in the show's three-city season. 'That's the power of Hedwig, honey, the power of the wig,' they say. 'They're breathing it all in.' Miley Moore, a contestant on The Voice who went on to star in Miss Saigon, says they are connected heart and soul to the live concert nature of this highly immersive production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. 'It's absolute pride and power up there,' they say. 'It's a rock 'n' roll show, a pride show. It is music. The audience are involved. I'm involved. It's hot and heavy in there. You absolutely feel it. It's been exhilarating, confronting as all hell up there and just such a transformative experience for me. 'This show is an absolute beacon of liberation. It's a trailblazer of queer cinema, queer musical theatre. It's a beacon of such queer spirit, non-binary spirit, trans spirit, of someone finding their true selves. 'It's an absolute liberation for the person you're meant to be in this world.' With text by John Cameron Mitchell and lyrics by Stephen Trask, Hedwig and the Angry Inch – born from a character created in downtown New York clubs in the 1990s and known for a cult 2001 movie (also starring Mitchell) – debuted as a musical off Broadway in 1998. Productions have run in almost 20 countries since, including a multi-Tony Award-winning 2014 Broadway show starring Neil Patrick Harris and, more recently, Mitchell's stripped back 2019 production, The Origin of Love Tour: The Songs and Stories of Hedwig, which they also starred in. In Australia Hedwig and the Angry Inch premiered in 2006, with iOTA winning several awards in the lead role. An aborted 2020 production was to have starred Hugh Sheridan. Blending punk, blues, heavy metal and rock 'n roll, the musical is Hedwig telling her story. Forced into botched gender reassignment surgery as a way to marry an American soldier and flee Berlin, she is left with a dysfunctional mound of flesh, the 'angry inch' (described as having 'a scar running down it like a sideways grimace on an eyeless face' in the musical's song Angry Inch). When we meet Hedwig she is performing a low-rent gig with her band, The Angry Inch, as the US concert tour of rock star Tommy Gnosis plays nearby (heard when Hedwig opens a door on-set). Gnosis collaborated musically with Hedwig before fame (his success comes from those songs) and began a relationship, but he has abandoned her. Aiding Hedwig during her tour is a surly Croatian Jewish drag queen, Yitzhak, played by Adam Noviello, with whom she has a toxic co-dependency. Noviello, who has a long-term love for the film and musical, sees himself in its themes. 'To me, the show, film and the character of Hedwig have always represented the in-betweenness of human beings and of gender, music and expression,' they say. 'Personally, I feel like I've spent my whole career and my whole life on that spectrum. 'The misfits, the losers, we've always felt like that growing up and in our careers.' Seann Miley Moore 'Hedwig is one of those rare beauties of a role where as gender-diverse people, and as trans people and as artists, we see ourselves. She represents our otherness and our fabulousness and our traumas and our battles. So, she's a very big deal for us.' Miley Moore agrees by singing from the song Midnight Radio in the show's finale. ' The misfits, the losers, we've always felt like that growing up and in our careers,' they say. 'But, to do it in this, it's two queens colliding and queer excellence on that stage and we both feel absolute pride and power up there. 'And we're both Scorpios so it's hot.' The musical's songs, from Wig in a Box to Tear Me Down, The Wicked Inch and The Origin of Love, lead much of the show, swinging from full body guttural rock to heart-rending emotional sorrow. In Adelaide's aptly named Queens Theatre, Midnight Radio soars to its ending – ' All the misfits, and the losers/Well you know you're rock and rollers/Spinning to your rock and roll/Lift up your hands ' – bringing some audience members to tears while waving their arms in the warm muggy air. This physical connection to Hedwig begins long before the show's ruched powder blue circular curtain rises above the stage. In Adelaide, a whole trailer park, with wooden refreshment booths under lines of pegged washing, was built outside the theatre as a nod to Hedwig's on-tour life living in a mobile home between gigs. Audience members could visit her caravan, filled with personal effects and memorabilia, before watching a pre-show bar show. Co-directors Shane Anthony and Dino Dimitriadis say this set-up – also planned for Melbourne and Sydney venues – is about transcending boundaries of audience, cast and the stage. 'The show feels big in its themes, big in its appeal to love, big in its appeal to identity and self-searching, big in its appeal to cultures and across different continents,' Anthony says. 'We wanted to make that concrete for the audience, both in the immersive experience provided before the show, but also inside the venue.' Anthony, who vividly recalls seeing the 2014 Broadway production starring Harris, believes Hedwig and the Angry Inch affects people deeply whoever they are. 'It lands in your DNA in a really exciting way,' he says. 'It hits you. You don't immediately understand it, but it taps into something that's more transcendent, more universal, more about the human condition. 'John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask have created something that mines truth and authenticity with characters in a way that perhaps a lot of musicals don't,' he says. 'It's about searching for love and it's done in an incredibly poetic way. 'Those songs are poems. They're explosive, they're dynamic, and I think they resonate with any audience member who's wanting to find love.' As their ice-blocks melt and the sun beats on in Adelaide, Miley Moore and Noviello echo Anthony's words. 'As much as the show is built to and will empower the queer community, it's absolutely a universal story,' Noviello says. 'So much of Hedwig's journey has her caught in a cycle of abuse and now she decides to end that. 'As the show progresses, she's choosing goodness, she's choosing wholeness and choosing love going forward and that's all of our story. We all have to make that decision within ourselves to lead with love and kindness. It's not taught to everyone. 'As much as Hedwig is for queer folks, her story is absolutely for everyone.' Miley Moore lets out a whoop before licking drips of ice-block off their arm. 'And who doesn't love rock and roll baby?' they say. 'Whatever the temperature is, hot or cold, we're dealing with all the elements, all the emotions in there.' They mime a lingering kiss. 'On and off the stage.'
Metro
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Metro
US TV star arrested for 'attack with a cement block and sexual assault'
US actor Michael Pitt, best known for starring in Dawson's Creek and Boardwalk Empire, has been accused of sexual abuse, as well as attacking an ex-girlfriend with a block of cement. The TV star, 44, was arrested on Friday night around 9pm in New York City and arraigned at Brooklyn Supreme Court on 'two counts of first-degree sexual abuse and other related charges', according to documents seen by the New York Post. The incidents stem from four separate domestic incidents which allegedly took place between April 2020 and August 2021 at the actor's home in Bushwick. Pitt, who famously played Jimmy Darmody opposite Steve Buscemi on HBO's hit drama Boardwalk Empire between 2010 and 2011, 'forcibly fondled' his former girlfriend, prosecutors allege, before – at a later date – sexually assaulting her and hitting her with a wooden plank. He is then, in June 2021, accused of attacking her with a cinderblock – a concrete block with a hollow interior used in building – before, two months later in August 2021, strangling her. TMZ separately detailed the charges against Pitt as 'assault injury with a weapon sexually motivated, strangulation sexually motivated, sex abuse, and forcible compulsion'. The Hedwig and the Angry Inch and Seven Psychopaths actor has pleaded not guilty to all charges and posted bail, which was set at $100,000. Pitt's lawyer told TMZ: 'Unfortunately, we live in a world where somebody like Mr Pitt – an accomplished professional who would never so much as contemplate these crimes – can be arrested on the uncorroborated word of an unhinged individual. 'In reality, this baseless claim is suspiciously raised some four or five years after the alleged incident, at a time when the two parties were in a completely consensual and voluntary relationship. This case will be dismissed.' It's not Pitt's first brush with the law in recent years, after starring as Henry Parker in Dawson's Creek from 1999 to 2000. Pitt was previously arrested in July 2022 for assault and petty larceny after allegedly snatching a man's phone out of his hand and repeatedly punching him in the head. The man suffered minor injuries. Later that year, in September, he was taken into police custody after an anonymous report of a male throwing items at people from the rooftop of a building. The actor was apprehended at the scene but not charged after being deemed an 'emotionally disturbed' individual. Video footage obtained by TMZ at the time showed Pitt being strapped to a gurney by EMS technicians after his public outburst before he was taken to a local hospital for treatment. Pitt's most recent film credits include 2023's Asphalt City (previously called Black Flies when it premiered at Cannes), opposite Sean Penn and Tye Sheridan, as well as Reptile with Benicio Del Toro and Justin Timberlake. More Trending Day of the Fight, also released in 2023, saw him play a boxer on a journey of redemption after prison, and reunite with Boardwalk Empire alumni as it co-starred Buscemi and was written and directed by Jack Huston Pitt is due back in court on his recent charges on June 17. Metro has contacted reps of Pitt's for comment. Got a story? If you've got a celebrity story, video or pictures get in touch with the entertainment team by emailing us celebtips@ calling 020 3615 2145 or by visiting our Submit Stuff page – we'd love to hear from you. MORE: Smokey Robinson, 85, accused of assault and sexual battery in bombshell £40,000,000 lawsuit MORE: 'Terrifyingly good' 2025 horror movie is finally coming to Netflix very soon MORE: The White Lotus' Lisa sparks outrage over 'disrespectful' detail on Met Gala outfit
Time Out
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch' is bringing glam-rock glory to Carriageworks this July
Sydney, it's time to put on some makeup and pull the wig down from the shelf – because Hedwig has finally announced plans to head on over to our wicked little town. Following a smash-hit season with Adelaide Festival, GWB Entertainment and Andrew Henry Presents have confirmed that Hedwig and the Angry Inch will unleash its raw energy at Sydney's Carriageworks from July 17. Hailed by Rolling Stone as 'the best rock musical ever' and featuring a razor-sharp catalogue of songs including 'The Origin of Love', 'Midnight Radio' and 'Sugar Daddy', Hedwig and the Angry Inch holds a special place for many queer people and rock music devotees. The world needs the wisdom of John Cameron Mitchell 's cult masterpiece of gender-fuckery more than ever – and an arguably perfect team of local queer talents have come together to create this original Australian production. (I was lucky enough to head over to the country's festival capital for the premiere in February, and it was every bit as gloriously gritty, grungy, hilarious and heart-wrenching as I hoped it would be!) Seann Miley Moore stars as the hedonistic anti-heroine herself, Hedwig. Moore took out the critics' choice award for Best Performance in a Musical in the inaugural Time Out Sydney Arts & Culture Awards with their acclaimed take on the Engineer (or, as Moore describes them, the 'Engin-Queer') in Miss Saigon, and this wild, rock-fuelled role is your chance to see them like you've never seen them before. Along a live rock band, Seann stars opposite acclaimed actor, singer, songwriter Adam Noviello (Jesus Christ Superstar) as Hedwig's devoted yet defiant partner, Yitzhak. Before Sydney takes a taste of Hedwig and the Angry Inch in July, the show will play at Melbourne's Athenaeum from June 13. General public tickets for the Carriageworks season will go on sale at 10am on Tuesday, April 29, at
