We talk with Lena Hall about “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”
Lena Hall has a voice that’s pure rock ’n’ roll: raspy, powerful, rich with emotion. It’s ironic, then, that she won the 2014 supporting-actress Tony for playing Yitzhak in the rock musical “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” — a role in which she sang exactly one song.
She’ll reprise that strong-but-mostly-silent performance when the show’s first national tour opens at the Golden Gate Theatre on Sunday, Oct. 2, with fellow San Franciscan Darren Criss starring as the titular transgender woman, whose “angry inch” resulted from a botched sex-change operation in postwar East Germany. But for one show each week, Hall will finally take center stage and star as Hedwig.
(Hall will portray Hedwig at 7 p.m., Sunday, Oct. 9, and at 8 p.m. on Wednesdays, Oct. 12, 19 and 26.)
In doing so, she is following in the platform footsteps of the Hedwigs she starred with on Broadway: 2014 lead-actor Tony winner Neil Patrick Harris as well as Andrew Rannells, Michael C. Hall and John Cameron Mitchell, who created the gender-fluid role and wrote the musical’s book. Unlike Yitzhak, though, Hall is no wallflower, and the passionate rock and cabaret singer is “thrilled” to tackle the anthemic score by songwriter Stephen Trask.
The feeling is mutual. “It’s mind-bending, what she can do with her voice,” Trask said in a phone interview. “Of all of us, Yitzhaks and Hedwigs combined, Lena is the most rock ’n’ roll,” said Mitchell. And Criss, only half-joking, adds that “She’s gonna crush it so hard, I’m gonna feel like an idiot.” While vacationing in Miami, Hall called to share her own perspective. Q: You saw “Hedwig” in the late 1990s, in its off-Broadway days. What impact do you think it’s had over the years? A: When it first came out, it was way ahead of its time. It was too soon for an audience to really accept a transgender character. Thinking about this story going on tour through the United States … it shows that, yes, we have been pushing forward as a nation to be more accepting.
Q: But at heart, its message is universal. A: John and Stephen made such a beautiful story, that people can see that gender, or race, or sexual orientation doesn’t define you as a human being. That person deep down is made of the same stuff we are and goes through the same struggles we do. A show like this can really make an audience feel such empathy for this character. Q: You’ll be reprising your role as Yitzhak, Hedwig’s husband. How do you create a believable illusion that you are male? A: I worked on physicality, making sure that I wasn’t doing anything too feminine. I had a specific walk that I worked on, and my boots were heavily weighted, because men’s center of gravity is much
lower than women’s. I made sure that I recognized how men respond to certain situations, being very silent, being very stoic. Q: You also wear tighty-whities and a codpiece. A: (laughs) Yeah, right! When I would put him on, I was him, no matter what. When I took him off, I was me. Q: As Hedwig, the men play a man who has become a woman. In your case, you’re a woman playing a man who has become a woman. A: I saw the show from behind however many times I played it on Broadway. So it will be a
trip to put myself on the other side of it. Because it’s such a gender clusterf—, I’m just going to try and focus on telling the story as clearly as possible, so that people understand what is going on. Q: Why did you want to play Hedwig? A: Because I relate so hard-core to her finding her other half, like we all do. There’s so much to (her story), so much pain and so much loss, bad decisions where the outcome isn’t what she expected. I just love the journey she goes on from the top of show till the very end. Q: What did you learn from watching your co-stars play Hedwig? A: It is a rock show, and rock ’n’ roll is not meant to be pretty. The best shows happened whenever one of the Hedwigs got sick. They would be at their most vulnerable state, and that vulnerability made the show so interesting. (The producers) asked me if I wanted to have a show off during this run, so I would only have to do seven shows a week, and I was like, no, I want to be tired, I want to be in that vulnerable state so the show flows. You start to let go of your insecurities — am I going to be funny, am I going to sound good? That’s what I learned from watching all the boys: When they let it go, it would be miles above. It was that moment of letting go that made it incredible.
“It is a rock show, and rock ’n’ roll is not meant to be pretty.” Lena Hall