Sex (changes) and rock ‘n’ roll — ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ has it all

At OpenStage in Fort Collins, audience participation is fully encouraged at this headbanging show

Arriving at The Lincoln Center for Hedwig and the Angry Inch, I found myself surrounded by audience members sporting yellow, wing-like headdresses (the reason becoming apparently as soon as Hedwig bounds on stage), glittery dresses, and 6-inch heels. I had missed the memo: Hedwig and her band have a far reaching following complete with fanfolks eager to participate in the musical insanity.

Indeed, the audience and their enthusiasm and love of Hedwig are part of what makes this musical story so fun. Hedwig (Cameron Warren Liljekvist) loves her adoring fans and speaks and sings (and thrusts her junk) directly to them, making the whole event seem intimate and personal (just how she likes it).

Directed by Sydney Parks Smith, Hedwig and the Angry Inch beautifully tells the story of Hansel cum Hedwig as he leaves communist Germany for the United States. It’s a journey she always wanted to take, but never imagined it would be as a woman. After meeting and falling in love with Luther, a U.S. soldier, they decide to marry. But that involves what becomes a botched sex-change operation leaving her with what she’s named her “angry inch.”

With her mother’s name and passport, a new husband and a new identity, Hansel — now Hedwig — arrives in Kansas. She is hopeful, and innocent, and not at all ready for what her new life entails. When her marriage fails a year later as the Berlin Wall falls, she makes a life for herself on her own.

Through a series of songs she writes and preforms with her band, The Angry Inch, we learn of her struggles and quest for love — real, true love — the kind before “The Origin of Love.”

Liljekvist as Hedwig could not have been better cast. He endears himself to the audience nearly immediately with his vulnerability and sadness as it shines through his songs. His voice is strong, confident, and lovely. Together with Yitzhak (Sydney Johnson), who complements her beautifully, the two carry the audience through their life.

Not at all without its share of humor — mostly awesomely raunchy, dirty and spot-on, Hedwig and the Angry Inch leaves you sad one second and rolling in laughter the next. The pair on stage together perform a sort of dance that seems to need no choreography.

The Angry Inch band is on stage with them the whole time, giving the theater the feel and sound of a rock concert. The stage isn’t set with much more than the band and the instruments, but there is a door, behind which another concert is happening.

Hedwig occasionally peeks in on it to hear what Tommy Speck cum Tommy Gnosis has to say. She’s hoping her once true love might actually credit her for the songs she wrote that he now sings on stage. Hedwig alternates between wishing to reconnect with the man that ultimately rejected her because of her angry inch, and wanting to destroy him and the career she helped him build.

At times shockingly sad, and at times splendidly candid, Hedwig and the Angry Inch somehow manages to leave one with a feeling of hope rather than despair. Despite all that our begrudging heroine (not hero) has been through, she still believes in love, and more importantly, herself.