Theatre Review: Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Hedwig and the Angry Inch                      

Text by John Cameron Mitchell

Music and Lyrics Stephen Trask

Directors Shane Anthony and Dino Dimitriadis

Musical Director Victoria Falconer

Choreographer Amy Campbell

Reviewed by Ron Lee, CSP 

Hedwig and the Angry Inch the rock musical has opened at Carriageworks. The original production was first staged off-Broadway in 1998.

Hedwig is a "genderqueer", aspiring singer who migrated to the U.S.A. from East Germany, and The Angry Inch is her band. She experiences professional setbacks and her heart is broken during her journey but she persists in pursuing her dream.

The eleven songs include Wig in a Box in which a few audience members are invited to wear blonde wigs, and Sugar Daddy, where Hedwig breaks the fourth wall to enter the audience. Other audience involvement is encouraged when some balloons are tossed around.

The "razor-sharp humour” that was promised included the opening line, "I like a warm hand on my entrance", and there were continual references to Hedwig’s agent, Phyllis Stein. I was reminded of the Carry On movies and Are You Being Served? Around the Wig in a Box song, they mentioned “head” and “wig”. Very punny. The enthusiastic and receptive opening night audience lapped it up, as children hearing old jokes for the first time.

Seann Miley Moore as Hedwig and Adam Noviello as Yitzhak possess outstanding singing voices that raised the Carriageworks theatre roof even higher than it already is. Appropriate to brand and genre, the Yitzhak cover/understudy/alternate is Amy Hack.

The Musical Director and keyboard player Victoria Falconer makes her four-piece band sound much bigger than it is in volume and intensity.