Signature Theatre has reverberated to the sounds of a wide variety of musicals over the years. It is safe to say they have never shaken as violently as they do to the hard rock of the John Cameron Mitchell, Steven Trask counter-culture hit "Hedwig & the Angry Inch," which made its area premiere there on Sunday.
After making a name for himself in London, New York and Washington with traditional musicals, Eric Schaeffer directs this strut-your-stuff outing for Rick Hammerly, who bends genders with the best of them.
Hammerly plays, an East German boy, a rock singer whose gay lover convinces him to undergo a sex change operation so they can get married and he can take "her" home to the West. The operation is botched, and the boy adopts his mother’s name.
"Hedwig" is stranded in a trailer park in middle America, and stranded in a body with as much gender confusion as her mind. She embarks on a career in rock. But Hedwig is as frustrated by playing only low-grade dives, as by the success of another singer with whom she wrote a number of songs.
<b>SIGNATURE’S SMALL</b> black box of a theater, seating just 136, is transformed by set designer Jim Kronzer into a rock club with a five-member band on a raised corner platform, "The Angry Inch," named for the result of Wedwig’s botched operation.
Drummer Starz Vander Lockett lays down a solid foundation and lead guitarist Steve McWilliams has some particularly striking flights.
Under Jon Kalbfleisch’s musical direction, they all emit a solid and raucous sound that would please the most fastidious rock fan but which also serves the dramatic needs of the play. This is particularly apparent as Hedwig’s club act turns into a revealing monologue, as she shares her identity confusion and its source with the audience.
Hammerly very simply plays the heck out of the role. He has never been known as a performer who holds anything back. But in this production, it is his no-holds-barred performance and his exceptional energy level that keeps the short evening going, from the opening entrance to the touching conclusion just 90 minutes later. Some brief shows feel short. This one feels complete and ends just when it should because its story is well and truly told.
Lynn Filusch has the only other speaking role: a disappointed and disgruntled lover of Hedwig who acts both as announcer and as back up singer. The casting of Filusch sa a man adds yet one more layer to the gender mix that is the backbone of the show.
<b>THE SCORE</b> is by Stephen Trask, of the band Cheater that played at "Hedwig’s" inception. He has strong credentials in the rock world, but his score is impressive as a theater score in its ability to capture character and plot within the rock idiom. The songs are not just performance pieces for Hedwig and her band, they tell the story and deepen the emotion as good theater songs should.
The show’s blurring of the lines between rock music and musical theater may turn off some potential audience members. But it also gives audiences a chance to sample material they haven’t seriously considered before. Some of the younger clientele who enjoy rock music but haven’t experienced live dramatic theater and some of the more traditional theatergoers who haven’t sampled this type of music may discover new pleasures.
While there is no actual nudity, the context of the show is certainly sexually explicit. There is no way of knowing if the half dozen patrons who left before the show was over were reacting to the music or the story. Maybe they just remembered that they left their lights on.
But there is a great deal to be enjoyed in this production if you enter knowing what to expect.