‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ electrifies
Theaters across Houston are exploring love and loss, identity and belonging in wildly different, often wonderful ways.
Theatre Under The Stars filters it through horror in a riveting production of “Sweeney Todd.” The Alley Theatre wrapped it in amor de familia in “American Mariachi.” Stages does it, over and over, with crowd-pleasing country classics in “Always … Patsy Cline.”
But of the current run of music-fueled productions, the biggest heart and richest rewards are tucked inside a CyFair strip-center theater, so unremarkable you might overlook it between the hair salon and mattress store. It’s here that Stageworks Theatre gives “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” the comeback tour it so richly deserves.
The rock musical about a genderqueer East German singer searching for their “other half ” opened off-Broadway in 1998 and ran for two years, where it built a fervent cult following. It was made into a 2001 film starring show creator John Cameron Mitchell, debuted on Broadway in 2014 and won the Tony Award for best revival of a musical.
“Hedwig,” however, works best in small spaces. It’s a show built on intimacy and the failures that have marked the fictional Hedwig’s career as a rock musician. It breaks the fourth wall, as Hedwig regularly addresses the audience between songs, recounting a childhood in East Berlin as the effeminate Hansel. The young boy was kept at arm’s length by his mother and found comfort in American rock and pop music. Hansel is wooed by American soldier Luther, who convinces the naive boy to dress as a woman.
Luther agrees to marriage — but only if Hansel undergoes gender reassignment surgery and lives as a woman. The botched operation results in a “plastic mound,” the titular “angry inch,” and leaves Hedwig trapped between identities.
Hedwig is less the show’s lead character than a force of nature with an orbit all her own. She is protagonist and antagonist, human and supernatural, lover and fighter. Matthew Brennan has a keen understanding of the complex role. He’s played Hedwig in other productions around the country and is bewitching from the moment he saunters down the aisle to the stage, wrapped in red, white and blue. Brennan inhabits the role completely, from the bottom of his pink boots to the flyaway strands of Hedwig’s iconic wig. He tells Hedwig’s story clearly and beautifully through song.
As Yitzhak, Hedwig’s beleaguered boyfriend/assistant, Nicolette Montana must showcase a range of emotions while rarely speaking a word. It’s all in her face, and Montana is excellent at clearly conveying Yitzhak’s feelings. Montana, who has previously played Yitzhak to Brennan’s Hedwig, shifts expertly from disdain to heartbreak to joy, sometimes within seconds. And she delivers a rich, powerful vocal performance.
Brennan and Montana get solid support from an onstage band and a pair of spirited backup singers, all of whom are seamlessly integrated into the show. Director Ryan Scarlata and scenic designer Ray Zupp have created an inviting space that immerses the audience fully in Hedwig’s music and mind, making for one of the year’s most riveting productions on any Houston stage.