Hedwig And The Angry Inch

Hedwig is an East Berlin trannie craving for love who has suffered a botched operation where his gender used to be -“ hence the angry inch. Hedwig was actually born 10 years ago in a New York basement bar, the brainchild of actor John Cameron Mitchell and composer Stephen Trask.

Yes, this angry tale of desperate love and medical mishap is actually a musical but, needless to say, more in the style of The Rocky Horror Show than Mary Poppins.

The miracle is why this explosive and outrageous voice should have taken so long to get to Sydney. Producer David Hawkins finally got it up in Newtown just last year and it returns for Mardi Gras now armed with two Sydney Theatre Awards.

Given the musical competition last year from the likes of Dusty, Titanic and Priscilla, it’s astonishing that this near-solo basement show should be judged the best production and its star judged best musical performer.

Backed by a thrashing rock band on a deliberately torn and tacky proscenium stage, that star performer is iOTA. In seductive German accent, iOTA struts and sings Hedwig’s outlandish story, relishing the obscene humour as much as the anger and sadness of someone looking for love in all the wrong places.

The story may be outrageous and his delivery high voltage but iOTA speaks and sings to us all -“ and he also moves powerfully.

The songs leap between Bowie-style glam rock, dark poetic ramblings reminiscent of Lou Reed, pre-punk anthems and even country and, although the lyrics are often lost, the emotion is unavoidable.

Just one of Hedwig’s sufferings is from a former boyfriend and co-creator, Tommy Gnosis, now a rock star who denies the collaboration.

He can be heard shouting his lies to a nearby stadium of fans every time Hedwig opens her stage door -“ an outcast of both fame and love on her own tacky basement stage.

Saskia Smith says little as Hedwig’s sidekick and whipping boy but in support she sings a dream.

The slender story takes Hedwig from the Berlin Wall to the trailer parks of Arkansas, going down on everyone and everything in between. Costumes and wigs are speedily re-worked onstage into yet new streetwise postures and, by the end, near naked Hedwig is raw and electric.

This performer, and this production from director Craig Ilott, is screaming for your attention.

Hedwig And The Angry Inch is playing now at the Tom Mann Theatre, Surry Hills.