For its take-no-prisoners presentation of the rock cult classic, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Actors Theater of Louisville has transformed its intimate Victory Jory Theater into the tacky Liki Liki Tiki Room, a Hawaiian-themed lounge where "paradise is just a mai tai away." Hedwig, an East German-born transsexual whose botched operation resulted in an "angry inch," the name she's given her band, is powerfully sung and acted by fabulous David Hanbury, resembling a masculine-looking Sarah Jessica Parker.
Hedwig recounts in song and speech the sad, compelling, and bitchily funny story of her journey from a Communist country to a Kansas trailer park with a soldier lover who got her to have the male-to-female operation before marriage and later deserted her. When she takes up with a general's nerdy son whom she turns into a major rock star performing songs she wrote, he, too, leaves her on her own to earn her living as a singer in seedy dives. But don't call her poor Hedwig. She's too fierce to be pitied, though some of her songs -- "The Origin of Love" and the poignant "Wig in a Box" -- reveal a sensitivity masked most often by defiance. And there's certainly self-awareness when she sings, in "Wicked Little Town," that "with all the changes you've been through, it seems the stranger's always you."
Stephen Trask's music and lyrics and John Cameron Mitchell's book have justly earned acclaim in the musical's numerous productions since its long off-Broadway run and a 2001 film adaptation starring Mitchell. Vigorously directed by Sean Daniels, ATL's recently-named associate artistic director, Hedwig is replete with stunning moments, highlighted by Hanbury's frenzied dancing to the band's intense accompaniment. The arm-waving audience gets really into it.
