Hedwig and the Angry Inch. An unrecognizable Tim Oberholzer with star quality is stunning. An exciting and expertly mounted musical show that is not to be missed!!!
Photo. Andrew Alexander . Tim Oberholzer as Hedwig and Rebecca Noelle in the background as Yitzak .
The Vanity project’s version of this glizty transvestite gender bender musical inspired much by David BowIe’s feminine Ziggy Stardust personality and her (his) tranformation to the male Bowie, shows us Hedwig , accompanied by her East German colleagues, frantically searching for the other half of her being. The epitome of Post-Wall divided culture, she takes us through her beginnings in post war torn East Germany in the aftermath of the destruction..bringing together all the music of the period including that of the biggest German and international stars of the time. With her ragingly campy non stop poetic banter , Mr. Hansel Schmidt (alias Hedwig) tells us the story of her personal evolution, her need to leave East Germany and her mother, and find freedom. Her escape, thanks to a throaty voiced male American, her tortuous gender shifting, closely linked to the symbolic of a split postwar Germany emasculated and divided by the wall. Identified to other splits such as its destructive German Jewish past. She speaks of ethnic cleansing, of post-wall European and American politics. Her alter ego Tommy Gnossis taunts her and shines across the way and brings us into the world of the "Who” bathed in parodies of the later Beatles, Nina Hagen and all the music of the period. Rebecca Noelle (a Johnny Depp look alike) but the lead singer of the local PepTides group and a magnificent voice that rivals Whitney Houston’s ( I will always love youuuuuu! ) is Hedwig’s sidekick. There are four back-up musicians including Stewart Matthews playing lead guitar!! Who would have believed that!! It’s one big surprise after the other.