Hedwig Angry Inch

 
 
Rock musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch focuses on the story of fictional rock and roll group with an East German transgender as its frontman. With music and lyrics by Stephen Trask, and text by John Cameron Mitchell, the show debuted in 1998 and has since been staged all over the world in numerous stage productions. It focuses on the life of Mitchell whose father is an Army Major General in the US and is known to have commanded the part of West Berlin occupied by the US.
 
Hedwig’s character was initially inspired from a divorced German US Amy wife who was a babysitter of the Mitchell family, and happened to moonlight as a prostitute in Junction City of Kansas, at her trailer park home spot. The musical score is definitively embedded in the seventies androgynous glam rock era that was dominated by the likes of David Bowie and John Lennon, as well as early punk heroes such as Iggy Pop and Lou Reed.
 
The musical debuted Off-Broadway in February 1998 at the famous Jane Street Theater, which was located in Hotel Riverview’s ballroom that once housed the survivors of Titanic. Initially produced and directed by Peter Askin, the performance won an Outer Critics Circle Award as well as an Obie Village Voice Award in the category of Best Off-Broadway Musical.  This Off-Broadway production was staged for two years in a row, after which it was re-staged by the original members of the creative team with other casts in London, Boston and Los Angeles. Hedwig and the Angry Inch tickets have since been a sought-after must-have treat among theater-goers around the globe.
 
The story of Hedwig and the Angry Inch musical is narrated directly by Hedwig to the audience in an extended monologue. The main concept behind the production dynamics is that the audience is looking at the musical acts of Hedwig’s character as she travels through the country, following rockstar Tommy Gnosis on his tour. Initially, the character of Hedwig was merely supposed to be a supporting element in the play, which was based loosely on the German prostitute/ babysitter working for the Mitchell family. Tommy was originally thought of as a primary character that was inspired by Mitchell himself, since both were homosexuals, fathered by an Army general, strongly Roman Catholic and intrigued by mythology. It was upon Trask’s encouraging Mitchell to include their earliest material in NYC’s punk-drag club Squeezebox in 1994 that Hedwig was made the protagonist. At squeezebox, Trask was the frontman of the house band whose bassist was Jack Steeb, Mitchell’s boyfriend.
 
Originally, the creators of Hedwig and the Angry Inch decided to develop the piece in clubs through band gig instead of choosing to do so in a theater setting, so that the musical would carry the rock energy. At the time, Mitchell was profoundly impressed with the drag performers on the roster of Squeezebox who played rock covers. Hedwig’s first few gigs’ setlists included several covers, the lyrics to which were rewritten by Mitchell such that they would provide a narrative of Hedwig’s story. These included Oh Well by Fleetwood Mac, See No Evil by Television, Whole Wide World by Wreckless Eric, The Death of Samantha by Yoko Ono, Non-Alignment Pact by Pere Ubu, Half Breed by Cher, Boys Keep Swimming by David Bowie, All the Young Dudes by Mott the Hoople, and Femme Fatale by Velvet Underground. Its current score includes the songs Tear Me Down, The Origin of Love, Random Number Generation, Sugar Daddy, The Angry Inch, Wicked Little Town, Wig in a Box, The Long Grift, Exquisite Corpse, Hedwig’s Lament, Midnight Little Town and Midnight Radio.
 
After Hedwig and the Angry Inch appeared Off-Broadway in 1998, the musical was staged by many productions including those in Boston, Los Angeles, London, Cleveland, UK, Greece, South Korea, Peru, Australia, Korea Sweden, Argentina, Germany and Czech Republic among others. Cheap Hedwig and the Angry Inch tickets are much sought after by theater-lovers and the musical’s fans who call themselves ‘Hedheads’. This is a show not to be missed.