ABSTRACT
Here she was, folx: an image of silver blue glittery eyes framed by massive fake eyelashes dipped in thick black mascara, red sparkly glitter mouth, an impossibly bouncy Farrah Fawcett-ish blonde wig, bustier, cowboy boots, spangly Western fringe straight out of a costume shop for an old cow-poke story, and killer bare legs. In this get-up, genderqueer heroine Hedwig strutted onto the Jane Street Theatre stage. Backed up by Cheater as Angry Inch – variously costumed in deliberately tacky 1980s street style – and co-star Miriam Shor playing Hedwig’s husband/roadie/backup singer Yitzhak, the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, under Peter Askin’s direction, positioned itself as a rebellious answer to a musical theatre scene’s sense of decorum and Andrew Lloyd Webber-ish spectacle post his Jesus Christ Superstar (1970) days. The 1980s, after all, had seen the Broadway musical swell under the epic weight of Les Miserables (1980) Miss Saigon (1989) and Webber’s own The Phantom of the Opera (1986).
