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In 1999, a young man named John Cameron Mitchell wrote a play called Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which told the story of Hedwig, a transvestite German glam rocker on a quest to find her ex-boyfriend, who stole her songs. When it was originally performed off-Broadway in New York, it immediately gained an enormous cult following. In 2001, Mitchell adapted the play to film so that it might reach an even wider audience, and it gained a proportionately larger cult following. Sage Theatre is bringing the cult to the Joyce Doolittle Theatre, starting March 1.
“We can definitely get a lot of mileage out of acknowledging the film, mainly because it has that huge fan base,” says Kelly Reay, Sage artistic director and director of the show. “When it became a film, it sort of burst into the rest of the world and people really became aware of it as a rock ’n’ roll musical. It’s similar to the Rocky Horror Picture Show, in that people come out to it dressed in costumes and so on.”
In order to accommodate the diehard fans, Sage is holding two special midnight showings on March 7 and 14. Despite the play’s cult appeal, Reay and company are confident that it will appeal to the uninitiated as well.
“There’s a quote used to describe Hedwig sometimes,” says Geoffrey Ewert, who plays Hedwig. “When it first came out, it was considered too rock ’n’ roll for theatre audiences [and vice versa]. It splits the difference. It’s not a regular play, in that we have different scenes and different settings and so on. Hedwig’s up there doing a gig and she talks between songs. That’s the whole thing.”
When revisiting a performance that’s been adapted to film, the massive audience generated by that ubiquitous medium can’t be ignored. Though the Sage team admits they can’t be everything to everyone, they hope that both theatre and film buffs will be placated.
“We were asked similar questions last year when we were doing Trainspotting,” Ewert recalls of Sage’s Betty Mitchell Award-winning show. “That show, of course, had a huge cult following due to the movie. Trainspotting was a play before it was a movie as well — same as Hedwig. But the play script and the movie screenplay were actually quite different. It’s the same basic story but told in a much different way. I think people who are familiar with the movie will see a lot of their favourite parts from the movie, but will also see something else entirely new and fresh.”
The show operates under an imposed assumption that the audience has come to see a performance by Hedwig and her band, the Angry Inch. Though Sage has made efforts to ensure that most elements of the original script are maintained, there are certain elements where Mitchell built some variability into the script.
“It’s set in a nightclub in the city that you’re in, so we’ve adapted that to Calgary,” says Reay. “In terms of the structure of the play and the order of the stories — they’re all John Cameron Mitchell’s words. But there’s a lot of opportunity for our Hedwig to play with the audience. There’s a certain amount of room to improve and play. Just really personalize it to a Calgary audience.”
Local musician Brendan McGuigan was hired as the performance’s musical director. Though much of McGuigan’s recent work has seen him performing with various jazz and country bands, he admits that a good deal of his influence comes from electronic and glam music — just like Hedwig.
“[This show] really reminds me of being 15 to 16 and trying to put a rock band together,” says McGuigan. “I find that, nowadays, in terms of the music work that I do, I’d really like to play some more straight-up rock ’n’ roll. It’s nice to just cut loose and play the music that my heart is very attached to.”
Though Hedwig will always hold a dearer place in the hearts of those who met her years ago, Sage’s production will provide the perfect opportunity for those who haven’t. Even though their version of Hedwig won’t offer an entirely fresh take for those already familiar with the story, her fans wouldn’t have it any other way.
