During the course of Hedwig And The Angry Inch, we catch ourselves at times flashbacking on Tommy and The Rocky Horror Show, but only because the canon of Rock Musicals is so small that overlap is inevitable. We’re not talking greatest-hits revues like Smokey Joe’s Café, portrait revues like Love, Janis, or standard-issue tralalas with pumped-up bass and percussion like—-well, everything from Hair to Rent. We’re talking the REAL thing—with characters, dialogue, a story to tell, and onstage musicians playing a part in it.
A major part, actually. The framing device for John Cameron Mitchell’s narrative is a tour engagement at—whattaya know?—Chicago’s Broadway Theatre, by the band called The Angry Inch, whose lead singer is named—you guessed it!—Hedwig! In between songs, this diva-in-training acquaints us with the history of Hansel, an East German “girly-boy” whose search for his Platonic “other half” led to a botched sex-change operation that left him with a “Barbie-doll crotch.” Rendered literally sexless, what could this castaway do but take to the glam-rock road?
On the journey, our pilgrim-hero (ine) loves and loses fellow rocker Tommy Gnosis (whose benefit concert at Wrigley Field is clearly audible—suspend your disbelief, OK?—through the Broadway’s stage door). She also acquires a Jewish husband, the forlorn Yitzhak, who provides her with a dramatic foil, soprano harmonies and, on opening night, emergency costume assistance.
It’s a tour de force role demanding the adorableness of Shirley Temple, the vocal range of the Edwin Hawkins Singers and the stamina of Secretariat. Nick Garrison is well up to the challenge, however, whether lobbing double-entendres, mirror-flirting with the audience, or shedding sweat-soaked clothes (though only 90 minutes long, the show requires Hedwig’s active participation at all times). Katrina Lenk and a likewise visually and aurally ambisexual squad of tunesmiths supply stalwart support for Stephen Trask’s sturdy score which bows to such diverse pop genres as country-honkers (“Sugar Daddy”), heavy metal (“Angry Inch”) and romantic ballads (“The Origin of Love”).
But more important than the kickass good time Hedwig delivers is its invocation of the eternal quest for self-identity and completion-;an exploration concluding in a resolution to send us home filled with new hope and purpose.