If rock musicals fronted by nearly-transgender, furiously lamenting drama queens are your thing, then this is definitely the show for you and if they aren’t, I highly recommend seeing it anyway.
Hedwig’s search for The Origin of Love is obviously a tumultuous one but with this outstanding cast of actors and exceptional live band you’ll want to follow her to the finish.
Having never seen the film or stage version previously, I had very few prior expectations but talking to people who knew the show well, it was always going to be a gamble as to how they would pull it off on such a small stage.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch portrays the story of an East German rock goddess whose loves and losses are sung out through the premise of a live rock concert, complete with backing singers and a live band.
With sexual innuendos abound, Hedwig’s character is certainly not tame but she never once over did it, as lines were delivered with as much tact and subtlety to be genuinely funny and never grossly smutty.
Each song was delivered note perfect, making it slightly unrealistic as a live rock gig but credit must be awarded to the actress playing Yitzhak whose voice continued to blow the audience away for the duration.
Unfortunately, at parts it did appear quite amateur; when the stage hands took to the stage and started prancing around in wigs it was a bit unnecessary and detracted slightly from the song but in their defence they were making the most of the obvious limitations of bringing such a huge show to a rather small venue. And for that, they can be forgiven because the rest of the show certainly made up for it
Behind the laughter, Hedwig’s tale is actually steeped in misery and regret and you could really feel this sense of tragedy as the monologues were being delivered. To convey so many hidden layers of emotion through an outwardly bolshie and fickle, rock star like Hedwig can’t have been an easy task but it was obvious that a lot of hard work has gone in to making this musical.
With an overbearing alcoholic mother, a glory-stealing ex-boyfriend and a rather unfortunate anatomical inch, Hedwig’s search for The Origin of Love is obviously a tumultuous one but with this outstanding cast of actors and exceptional live band you’ll want to follow her to the finish.
