Hedwig and the Angry Inch at home onstage
Company brings fan favourite rock opera to Calgary
PREVIEW
HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH
One-Eyed Productions
September 26 to October 6
Black Box Theatre (Currie Barracks)
Move over, Priscilla. Take a break, Frankenfurter. Hedwig is coming.
John Cameron Mitchell’s transgender romp Hedwig and the Angry Inch opens onstage this week, and it's sure to delight local fans. Hedwig is a stage and screen phenomenon that has quickly outstripped previous cult hits Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and The Rocky Horror Show.
This quirky off-Broadway hit began life at a New York City punk rock drag night in 1998. Since then, its popularity has spread worldwide thanks to a soundtrack album and a movie. The musical has been staged across the U.S. as well as in London, Manila, Reykjavik and Berlin. Everywhere it has played, legions of faithful fans have sprung up, returning night after night, but the Calgary show from One-Eyed Productions marks only the second time Hedwig has graced a stage in Canada. Director Kevin Currie is hoping his production will inspire the same response.
"For me, it’s all about the music," says Currie. "As soon as I heard it, I knew I wanted to produce it.
This simple, small-cast show is basically a concert by rock singer Hedwig and her band The Angry Inch. Part Marlene Dietrich, part David Bowie, between songs she tells stories about her bizarre life.
Hedwig was born a boy named Hansel in East Berlin. He fell in love with an American G.I. and underwent a sex-change operation in order to marry him and flee to the West. The operation was not entirely successful, leaving Hedwig with an "angry inch." Later, as a divorcée in a Kansas trailer park, Hedwig formed a rock band and fell in love with teenager Tommy Gnosis. Tommy eventually left her, stole her songs and became a mega-rock star. Now Hedwig and her band tour dingy restaurants and strip malls in the shadow of Tommy Gnosis. Currie’s production is set in Calgary on the same night Gnosis plays the Saddledome.
Hedwig is a figure of duality, spanning two sexes. She is the ultimate outsider, with partial organs of both sexes, simultaneously belonging to both and to neither. Celebrated in the song The Origin of Love (with passing reference to the two loves of Plato’s Symposium), Hedwig is searching for her other half, her lover, the one who will complete her.
Hedwig’s punk-influenced music appeals to a wide audience with straight-ahead rockers like "Tear Me Down," anthems like "Midnight Rodeo" and even a country song "Sugar Daddy." No maudlin torch singer, her sound is coloured with T. Rex, the New York Dolls and a touch of Lou Reed.
"It’s closest to ’80s glam rock," says Currie.
Calgarians who have seen the film version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch starring her creator, John Cameron Mitchell, will find the stage version just as entertaining. This is a rock concert that invites participation and interaction with the audience – don’t expect anyone tossing toast onstage, but expect to be part of the show.
The play has a much smaller cast than the film. Chris Willott will play the larger-than-life Hedwig. Not only is it vocally demanding for a singer, but through her stories Hedwig creates all of the other people in her life. Essentially, Willott has to provide nearly the entire cast of characters by himself. One exception is the complicated role of Yitzhak, Hedwig's husband, who will be played by Elizabeth Blair. Yitzhak is a gender-bending role just as complicated as the task that Willot faces with Hedwig. It’s a rare opportunity when an actress gets to play a man who wants to be a drag queen.
The music for this production will be provided by Kara Keith, Bob Keelaghan, Chris Vail and Brent Gough, who are all stalwarts on the local music scene. Hedwig and the Angry Inch will be presented at the Black Box Theatre, part of the newly opened Community Arts Centre at Calgary’s Currie Barracks. |
