Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Play (Musical), 2015 (Originally 1998)

Premise - A genderqueer wannabe rockstar named Hedwig puts on one hell of a one-woman show (well, kind of, she's got her subservient band "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" to play backup to her stardom). A dramatic drag queen, she speaks to a faux audience (who in actuality is a live theater audience), to play rock songs and tell the story of her life.

Review - This was so fascinating and not what I expected as a standard "play." There aren't any scenes or acts, no intermission even. It's an hour and forty five minutes of Hedwig, the star character, putting on a rock concert for a supposedly minuscule audience (which, ironically in reality on Broadway, can actually be quite large). Somewhat like a standup performance, her songs are interspersed with personal anecdotes about her life.

 

The lead actor is always a biological male performing as a character in drag, while the husband character is always played by a biological female, who is also posing as a character in drag. They really screw with your gender norms here. Typically, the actors have been queer (i.e. Neil Patrick Harris, who won the Tony Award for this performance), but the iteration that I saw online was from Darren Criss - a straight actor with a reputation of playing famous queer characters.

I can see how that would be problematic. The show is comedy - it operates on the assumption that something about a man wearing woman's clothing is inherently funny. There are almost parallels I can draw to white people performing in blackface, as if there's something inherently funny about acting black. I know Darren Criss has stated that he will no longer be representing queer characters, even though that is what he founded his career doing. It's a respectable choice, but let's operate for the rest of the review as though his performance is a socially acceptable one. I can see it going either way as, just by looking at someone, you cannot tell their sexual orientation. He fits the character bill of being a biological male, and anyone can dress in women's clothing if they so desire. If the character were played by a trans woman, for example, the final scenes in the play that request the actor strip bare naked down to underwear and reveal a male form would be strikingly different.

Assuming that it's appropriate for Darren Criss to play this character, HE DID FREAKIN' PHENOMENAL. I'm SO upset that there isn't an album version with his voice. The Neil Patrick Harris album is available on Apple Music, but I can't find a single recording anywhere of Darren Criss's version. There is something so comforting to me about the sound of his voice - it's one that I've grown up with. It's also one that continues to get better as his performing skills have improved even more over time. His Starkid were somewhat pitchy - but oh my goodness he was a spot-on Broadway-level leading man in this. His acting was also over-the-top fantastic. That East German accent was incredible, his comedic timing infallible, and his body language oh so alluring. I will never tire of watching this man perform.

What the show does so well is balance comedy with tragedy. Yes, we are laughing AT Hedwig, maybe even more than we laugh with her. And maybe that's unfair. But we are definitely crying WITH her. This show evokes an UNPARALLELED amount of empathy. The show is about coping with pain (often through self-deprecating comedy) after a lifetime of being rejected societally and as an individual. It's about the pain of being uncomfortable in your own body, combined with the fact that no one else seems to be comfortable with you either. The "Angry Inch" in the title, for example, refers to the botched gender reassignment surgery that turned her genitals into an inch-long nub. Not only does Hedwig have trouble accepting this, so do her lovers. Where can she find peace? (88/100)

Quote - "I laugh because I'll cry if I don't" and it's corresponding, "I cry because I'll laugh if I don't"

What to watch for - My favorite musical number was Wig in a Box!

If you liked this play, I'd recommend The Rocky Horror Picture Show!

Written by John Cameron Mitchell

Music/Lyrics by Stephen Trask

Performed at the Belasco Theater on Broadway