WHEN ACTOR’S EXPRESS planned its 20th anniversary season, everyone wanted to revisit a former success as part of the celebration. One that had helped define the company was John Cameron Mitchell’s rock musical “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” which takes another bow beginning June 19.
According to Freddie Ashley, artistic director at the Express, no one wanted to simply stage a remount.
“We wanted a new production of a past show to sort of nod to the past, but still move forward,” he says. “‘Hedwig’ was the obvious choice on so many levels. Of course, it was successful the first time around, but it’s a show that a lot of people hold really close to their hearts. In many ways, it’s the perfect Actor’s Express show — edgy, smart, fun, sexy and a hell of a ride.”
“Hedwig” tells the tale of a rock singer from Communist Berlin who meets an American GI and agrees to a sex change operation to become a woman and escape the Berlin Wall. Unfortunately, the operation doesn’t work, leaving just the titular “angry inch.” The GI dumps her, and Hedwig is left on her own.
Later in the United States, she forms a rock band and becomes lovers with teen hottie Tommy Gnosis, who ultimately steals her songs and becomes the rock sensation she always wanted to be. Through songs, Hedwig tells her story at a run-down Atlanta strip club.
Actor’s Express first presented the musical under former artistic director Jasson Minadakis five years ago. This version is directed by Ashley and stars actor Craig Waldrip as the bewigged main character.
“HEDWIG” DEVELOPED CULT STATUS in an off-Broadway debut in 1999 that became a film in 2000 with its original creator and star John Cameron Mitchell. The Atlanta show five years ago saw the same sort of fanaticism, Ashley says.
“There were audience members who came back repeatedly to the show,” Ashley says. “There was even a group of teenagers who came every single night.”
Part of the appeal is that the show “just rocks,” he continues. “But on a deeper level, the music is so emotional. … The way the show works on a thematic level is intensely powerful.”
The main character’s struggles with acceptance — both internally and from the world around her — particularly resonate with gay and lesbian audiences.
“Hedwig’s journey is less about fitting in and more about becoming a completely actualized person on one’s own terms,” Ashley says. “She has to learn that she can’t allow her identity to be defined by other people in her life.”
GAY AUDIENCES WILL REVEL particularly in the catharsis that happens to Hedwig in the show because “so many of our own journeys have been about becoming actualized,” Ashley says.
“No one has to come to terms with being straight, but so many LGBT individuals have had to come to terms with our sexual identity or sexual orientation,” he says. “And those of us who’ve been through that journey know how empowering it is to come out on the other side articulating our own identity no matter what someone else tells you is wrong.
“This show is a celebration of that.”
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