There was a time when many of us talked about a generation gap, but I never really experienced one until seeing and hearing Hedwig, a transgendered German expat and self-described "almost famous" rocker. Oh, I could appreciate the musicianship of his/her Angry Inch combo, the way s/he knocked about and still had breath control enough to elucidate sad autobiographical facts. But I found much of them boring.
Only weeks before, in the very same theater, I listened to an East German transsexual telling of his/her life. Is this a trend? The difference here is blondie Hedwig seemed two persons, split, and sought the other half. S/he was courted, wed, and shed by a black American G.I. sugar daddy. Then there was Tommy Gnosis stealing Hedwig's songs. We learn he's actually famous. We hear him, too (and I wondered why). We see everyone drawn on video screens from Hedwig's childhood perspective. We see (and hear nearly screaming) the furtive young woman pretending to be Hedwig's male lover. We see how all the dark-clad musicians in the Angry Inch (named for Hedwig's leftover from a botched sexual change operation) make the performance move forward with as much difficult effort as David Colbert's Hedwig exerts.
I would have liked everyone and everything better if there had been less. Or maybe if I'd seen it a few years ago when it was newer. Yawning, I mentally split from the scene about quarter of an hour before the end. I guess my "other half" needed re-generation.
