Seann Miley Moore: The Hedwig The World Needs Right Now

Seann Miley Moore: The Hedwig The World Needs Right Now is one of our features from the July 2025 print issue – you can see more here.

If you’ve seen any of Seann Miley Moore’s work before, you’ll know they were destined to play Hedwig at some point in their life.

Even over Zoom, they exude the sort of radiantly queer, self-assured energy embodied by drag queens in front of packed clubs at midnight, or by the middle-aged butch helping you find what you need at Bunnings when you’re hungover on a Sunday morning. The sort of energy that comes from standing in your power, and knowing you’re good at what you do. It’s comforting; the confidence that you’re in safe hands, trusting them to guide you in the right direction — and so you just know that Hedwig’s legacy is safe in Moore’s hands.

It’s only been ten years since they stepped out onto the X Factor stage and into the world’s eye, but Moore already has an impressive resume under their belt: Miss Saigon, The King and I, even nearly becoming a Eurovision Song Contest contestant in 2022.

When I speak to Moore, they’ve just finished a two-and-a-half week run at the Adelaide Fringe, where Hedwig and the Angry Inch made a triumphant return to Australian shores after a 17-year absence.

“My God, what a transformative experience,” Moore gushes. “And the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It’s such an emotional and physical roller coaster, especially eight shows a week.”

John Cameron Mitchell’s show tells the story of Hedwig, a working class “slip of a girlyboy” who escapes East Berlin for America with her lover, coerced into gender-affirming surgery so the pair can pass as man and wife. 

Her vagina heals shut, leaving Hedwig with the titular angry inch of flesh, her husband abandons her, and the Berlin Wall is torn down, with Hedwig having endured it all for nothing.

Hedwig really is a role unlike any other. Not only is it demanding on a performer, physically and emotionally — they don’t leave the stage for the entire 90 minute show — but it’s an enduring part of queer canon, standing in stark contrast from stories of pretty twinks falling in love with each other.

“I mean, to be real, a little Filipino brown boy like me, putting the blond wig on is probably a first of its kind, really, within queer stories,” says Moore. “That’s huge for young, brown Asian kids going, ‘oh my God, that’s me on those stages’. And that’s bigger, right? For me to put on this wig, it’s bigger for my community as well.”

The show was revolutionary when it debuted off Broadway in 1998, an element that has endured despite the decades — which is somewhat bittersweet; fabulous that a queer story has endured, but sad that the world hasn’t seen enough progression for transgender and gender-diverse stories and allyship in that almost-three decades. Although there’s been progression on queer rights across the world, the very existence of trans and gender diverse people is under attack still, in 2025.

This run of Hedwig is blessed with an explicitly queer team, with co-directors Dino Dimitriadis and Shane Anthony at the helm, and Adam Noviello as Yitzhak, the partner Hedwig resents and, arguably, abuses. The team behind the ill-fated 2020 revival argued that anyone could make the show, but in the hands of those who’ve experienced the gender-fuckery of queerness, Hedwig takes on a rawer, more authentic edge.

“There’s more colours of our queer rainbow. Step in Seann Miley Moore, step in some divas and dolls who probably don’t have a seat at the table,” Moore says. “There’s something so inherent in queer stories and in queer communities, that resilience — especially in the time we’re in.”

At its core, Hedwig is about the struggle to be seen the way you want to be, regardless of how complicated that truth may be. Underneath the hurt and trauma, it’s a story about remaining true to yourself, even if that means not knowing where your path leads. 

“She is out there reclaiming her story, reclaiming her narrative, her music that is stolen from her: ‘I am here, whether you like it or not.’

“It’s an honour for me to be Hedwig and fight for that stage. It is radical and political, and it’s punk, baby.”

Hedwig and The Angry Inch is showing at Carriageworks from 17 July to 3 August, 2025 — find out more at hedwig.com.au.