Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Text by John Cameron Mitchell.
Music and lyrics by Stephen Trask. Co directors Shane Anthony and Dino
Dimitriadis. Musical director Victoria Falconer. Set Design Jeremy Allen.
Costume design Nicol and Ford. Lighting design Geoff Cobham. Choreography Amy
Campbell. Sound design Jamie Mensforth. Soundscape design Jason Sweeny. Consent
and community consultant Bayley Turner. Executive producer Rob Brookman.
Associate producer Jeff Burns. Technical director Will Lewis. Producers Richelle Brookman. Torbin Brookman Andrew Henry. GWB Entertainment, Andrew Henry
and the Adelaide Festival. Queens Theatre. February 18 - March 15 2025
Reviewed by Peter Wilkins
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| Sean Miley Moore as Hedwig |
Outside the temperature soars to a stifling 35 degrees. Inside the Queens Theatre the hottest show in town sends the mercury through the roof with its production of John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask’s raunchy and wild rock and roll musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. The original theatre in Adelaide is ideal for the Adelaide Festival production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Hedwig, played with magnetic dynamism by Seann Miley Moore, is a queer singer, touring second rate venues across America with her companion former East German Drag queen Yitzhak ( a sensitively understated performance by Adam Noviello) and her band The Angry Inch. Like the show, the venues are rough and tawdry, concrete caverns or warehouse shells, neglected clubs, reeking with the odour of failure and rejection. For Hedwig, existing on the outskirts of social conformity, the 1961 construction of the wall, dividing her birthplace between the east and the west became a symbol of oppression and threatening negation of difference and individual sexuality. Hedwig immigrates to America on a quest for freedom and acceptance. In her attempt to discover love Hedwig experiences the cruel heartbreak of an American GI’s abuse and the betrayal of her lover Tommy Gnosis who stole her songs in his own quest for successful stardom. Hedwig is forced to survive, to battle on in a fierce assertion of identity. The raw defiance of Tear Me Down or the hope of escape from her struggles in Sugar Daddy or the botched sex change (The Angry Inch) and the possibility of overcoming the struggles in Wig in a Box all lead Hedwig on her rollercoaster search for the assertion of self.
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| Adam Noviello as Yitzhak, Seann Miley Moore as Hedwig |
The character of Hedwig was created as a star vehicle for originator John Cameron Mitchell. The plot is simple, the themes of identity and place in the world against the forces of political oppression and regression universal in the search for acceptance. Nothing could be more relevant in a world where all attempts at the acceptance of difference are being threatened and suppressed. There is a prophetic ominousness to Cameron Mitchell and Trask’s musical about the tormented Hedwig. The role of Hedwig is crucial to our understanding of the threat to anyone who might be regarded as not conforming to some accepted “norm”. It is particularly pertinent to the current American president’s absurd pronouncement of the proclamation of only two genders. The role of Hedwig becomes a symbol of the struggle for acceptance and empathy. In this production Seann Miley Moore is a powerhouse of persuasion. His performance is ebulliently charismatic. From an explosive celebration of self to a dejected admission of insecurity and powerlessness, Moore charts the trajectory of Hedwig’s life with ricocheting emotion. When she passes on her wig to a transformed Yitzhak it is an act of love and acceptance. She has discovered the truth of being oneself. Moore leads the audience along a path of understanding. Moore’s remarkable range and power gives voice to the heights of passion and the gentle tone of introspection.
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| Seann Miley Moore in Hedwig and the Angry Inch |
It is thirty years since the origin of Hedwig. Under Victoria Falconer’s musical direction, the performance by the band powerfully underscores the characters’ journey. Moore and Noviello, accompanied by Amy Clark as Yitzhak’s cover show that Hedwig and the Angry Inch continues to have a connection with audiences, who, with arms held high wave from side to side in time with the music and in affirmation of their support for their shared humanity no matter what gender, no matter what difference. Raucous or raunchty, wild or gentle, defiant or compassionate, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is first class entertainment and a salutary lesson in acceptance.
The Angry Inch Musicians.
Keyboards Victoria Falconer. Guitars Glenn Moorhouse. Bass Felicity Freeman.
Drums Jarrad Pyne.
Photos by Shane Reid
