Hedwig & The Angry Inch

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is an off-Broadway musical theater play (1998) and film (2001) about a fictional rock and roll band. The text was written by John Cameron Mitchell and the music and lyrics were by Stephen Trask. It has become something of a cult hit. It draws on the life of Wayne; now Jayne County, the original trans gender rocker, and the androgynous glam rock era of David Bowie (who, in fact, produced the original run of the show), as well as influences from Iggy Pop and the later gender bender fashions of the early 1980s. It also draws on Aristophanes' speech in Plato's Symposium, as well as the New York punk culture, which largely grew out of the Squeezebox club in the early-mid nineties, where the show was repeatedly workshopped by Mitchell and Trask before opening at the Hotel Riverview in 1998. The plot revolves around Hedwig, a transsexual rock star, leader of the band called The Angry Inch. In the story, Hansel, a German 'slip of a girly-boy', is stuck in East Berlin until he meets Luther, a US Soldier. Luther encourages Hansel to try on women's clothing and, soon, the two decide to marry, as it would give Hansel the opportunity to escape to West Berlin. However, in order to be married, the couple had to be a man and a woman — anatomically. Hansel's mother Hedwig passes on to her child her name and passport, and has a doctor remove his penis, but the operation is botched leaving her with a dysfunctional one-inch long mound of flesh. Hansel — now Hedwig — goes to live in America as Luther's wife. However, Luther soon leaves Hedwig for another man. That day, it is announced that the Berlin Wall has fallen, creating one Germany, thus Hansel's anatomical change to Hedwig was fruitless. Hedwig soon rediscovers her love for drag and starts making music, eventually forming The Angry Inch, referring to both the band and her genitalia. She befriends the shy and misunderstood teenager Tommy Speck (played by Michael Pitt), with whom she shares some of the songs she has written. After Hedwig gives him the new last name of Gnosis, Tommy steals the songs and goes on to become a huge star, while Hedwig and her band are forced to play diners and sleazy bars to make ends meet. Hedwig resents Tommy's success and plagiarism of her material, and sets out to ruin him.