I saw Hedwig and the Angry Inch live recently here in Kansas City, performed by a local group, and though it was rough, (and I am certain it almost always is), it touched me deeper than any live theater I've seen in many years.
Now, just to start off, I am queer. And really, I mention that to set you up with an "oh, he's gay and loves theater" assumption which I will now quash by saying I generally despise live theater. I loved it as a closeted youth, I must say. My family attended live musical theater all during my younger days. Our parents took us to see The King and I, the Sound of Music, Chicago (this in New York on Broadway in 1976), Finigan's Rainbow, Oliver, Guys and Dolls (these last two I also played oboe in the orchestra for when my high school performed them). We saw many plays, too, and I loved to be transported into the stories, forget myself for a while, stare at others performing.
Then in 1984 / 85, while I was attending my freshman year of college in England at Richmond College in Surrey, my mother took me to a string of theater which ended the magic it had cast for me earlier. Mousetrap, and Little Shop of Horrors, were probably the last two theater experiences I actually enjoyed, but Pump Boys and Dinettes, and finally Cats put the lid on the coffin. I was disillussioned, somehow. Suddenly, everything I saw was revealed as trite, manipulative, overplayed, and annoying.
I'll go see an occassional show, if my curiosity is piqued, mainly out of hope that I'll see something good or great or entertaining. And I am occassionally granted the experience.
"Thanatos", at least one of the original productions, I remember seeing it in a groundfloor loft-type room, not a theater at all, back in 1992 or 93 maybe. I enjoyed the story, the writing. The acting was pretty good. The environment was cool.
"Valley of the Dolls". I have a thing for Late Night Theater here in Kansas City. I love the idea. I love the deconstructionist, chaotic, fun-loving attitude that they fill their shows with. But I'm almost always left wishing they'd get a little more serious about it, push it, make it great. I shouldn't complain. We're blessed to have them in our city. The original run of Valley of the Dolls, I think I saw it at the Unicorn back in the late nineties, was, in my opinion, their finest hour. I keep going to see them hoping for that moment again.
So, a few years ago, when Hedwig and the Angry Inch came to town, I saw it and thought it was interesting. I have a memory of Jon Piggy Cupit doing bits from the show as Hedwig after the regular performance, but I'm not really clear how it played out. Anyway, a little later, the film came out, and I noticed the actor who played Hedwig was also the director and writer and had started the whole phenomenon and this was his directorial debut. And it was VERY GOOD. A GREAT film, with great structure, great writing, great music. A few moments that are confusing, but I was very touched.
So, I made a plan to see it live again, just to see. And I did, a couple of years ago, at the Off Broadway Theater, where it seemed to have originated, being perfectly aligned with the old Spirit Festival grounds where Tommy Gnosis might have played when Hedwig opens the rear exit of the theater to blinding light and deafening rock. It was a moment of theater that brought it all back, the idea that theater could be transporting, could rise above it's own theatricality and move something deep inside me. I was thrilled. And this kid, this wonder of a boy who played Hedwig, a kid with a face and a body and a voice and timing, and Holy Shit! Hedwig Lives!
So I bought the DVD, and it's got a great documentary about the building of the show, from Drag Club experiments to Off-Off-Broadway phenomenon to Sundance Film Festival. It filled in all the blanks and left me happy to know the process, the long hard road it took to move my spirit after years of feeling manipulated but unmoved by the theater.
So thank you Hedwig. For reminding me what it feels like.
