MUSICAL: HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH

Hedwig and her angry inch are back for three shows only at the Metro Theatre this month.

The playful and subversive off-Broadway production, with music and lyrics by Stephen Trask, opened at New York’s Jane Street Theatre in 1998. It gradually became a cult hit – the kind of production fanatics boast of seeing hundreds of times – and has toured extensively across the US, Canada, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Germany, the Philippines and the UK. David Bowie, who produced the Los Angeles production, has said Hedwig is ‘the most wholly rounded piece of rock theatre we have seen in years.’

It tells the fictional story of Hedwig Schmidt from East Germany, the unfortunate victim of a gruesomely botched sex-change operation just before the Berlin Wall collapsed, and an “internationally ignored song-stylist”. Her journey to find true love is a rock n roll odyssey which leads her across the world, helped along by some fantastic sing-alongs and great costumes.

Directed by Craig Ilott, Sydney singer iOTA originally played the title role of the angry but fragile transsexual punk-glam goddess in the long-running Sydney production. This time Iliot is directing Ezekiel Ox, best known for fronting the Melbourne band Mammal.

Writer John Cameron Mitchell, who also played and directed himself in the 2001 film version, has said, ‘the ultimate sadness of it is you think you have found this person [to love, but] you never really will unite with them. I wanted Hedwig to be a walking metaphor for this myth.’

Hedwig and The Angry Inch
September 16 – 18
Metro Theatre
624 George Street, Sydney
Tickets: $55, 9550 3666 or www.metrotheatre.com.au