Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Capital Playhouse
by Alec Clayton
Originally published in The News Tribune
(Tacoma), March 18, 2005.
Few
community theaters can do “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.” Few would dare even
attempt it – because it is too edgy for many smaller conservative communities
and because, simply put, you can’t just audition local actors for the lead
role and expect to get someone to fill the bill. But Olympia’s Capital
Playhouse is up to the challenge, and they were savvy enough to bring in Aaron
Berk, a professional actor/singer/dancer who has played the part to sellout
houses and rave reviews in upstate New York, and who has also toured Europe as
Woof in “Hair” and as Riff-Raff in the 25th Anniversary production of “The
Rocky Horror Show” – a show with remarkable similarities to “Hedwig.”
Berk
has also starred in many other musical productions and cabarets in New York,
including the New York Musical Theatre Festival and Raw Impressions Music
Theatre.
Added
to the roster of professionals brought in for this production is director
Stephen Nachamie, who returns to Olympia after
directing the world premiere presentation of the new musical “Vanity Fair”
in New York. Nachamie’s New York directing credits include “Sin Cities”
and the HBO New Plays series “Spit it Out.” He was the assistant director for the Actor’s Fund Broadway Concerts of
“Funny Girl” featuring Lillias White and Peter Gallagher, and “Chess”
starring Josh Groban. At Capital Playhouse, he directed “Chicago” in
2002 and choreographed “Tommy” in 1998.
Like
“Rocky Horror,” Hedwig has a huge following. Extra seats have been brought
in and placed close to the stage. Expect the house to be packed and the audience
to be raucous. And don’t be shocked if a mad transsexual performer in black
shorts climbs onto the arms of your chair and dances in your face. It’s that
kind of musical.
The
whole performance is presented as a rock and roll show set in the Capital
Playhouse. (The time and setting varies whenever “Hedwig” is put on –
always here and now.) Hedwig is in Olympia to perform with her band, The Angry
Inch, and her back up singer Yitzhak
(local actor/singer Kittra Wynn Coomer in drag as a man)
who is also Hedwig’s husband, announcer and errand boy.
As
the play opens, Yitzhak
steps up to the microphone and calmly states, “Ladies and gentlemen, whether
you like it or not – Hedwig!” And the Angry inch bursts into a Jimmy Hendrix
style rendition of the national anthem as Hedwig glides down a winding staircase
in androgynous glory, draped in a spangled blue cape and wearing tiny black
shorts, net stockings and knee-high platform boots. She bursts into a soaring
rock and roll song with amazing vocal range, ending on an ear piercing high
note.
Then
she tells her story bit by bit as she chats with the audience between songs.
Hedwig
Schmidt (formerly Hansel Schmidt) is an East German rock and roll singer who
calls herself an "internationally ignored song stylist." While in
Germany, an American soldier named Luther promises to take Hansel to the United
States if he agrees to switch his sex. But the sex change operation is botched,
leaving her with just “an angry inch.” Luther later abandons Hedwig in a
trailer park in Kansas, where she witnesses the Berlin Wall come down on TV. She
falls in love with fellow rocker Tommy Speck (whom she renames Tommy Gnosses)
and grooms him to be a star. Tommy steals her songs and becomes a huge success.
Hedwig stalks him, following him from city to city, performing in offbeat venues
while Tommy plays nearby in huge arenas.
Whether
singing or talking to the audience, Hedwig is all over the theater, running out
into the audience, doing splits, leaping onto a balcony. The songs she sings are
by turns fierce, sexy, sad, and very, very intense. For the first 90 minutes of
so it is primarily a one-person show carried by Berk’s incredible talent.
Finally, toward the end, Coomer gets to show off her own wonderful singing
talent, first with a takeoff on Celine Deon’s “I Will Always Love You”
(which Hedwig talks over) and then in a tender love song sung as a duet with
Berk.
Laying
down serious rock and roll chops behind Hedwig and Yitzhak, the Angry
Inch are: Skxzp (Troy Fisher) keyboard, Krzyzhtof (Mark Layton) guitar, Jacek
(Rick Jarvela) bass and Schlatko (Doug Narry) drums.