Ah, it’s been a long, long time since some of us have been in a seedy nightclub. Or in a theater.
Arizona Onstage Productions gives us both with its wild and raucous “Hedwig and the Angry Inch.”
The rock musical is rebellious, subversive, philosophical, irreverent, crude and glorious. It will make you angry, it will make you move, it will move you.
The stage at the Cabaret Theatre at the Temple of Music and Art has been transformed into that nightclub. And the headliner for the night is Hedwig, a “slip of a girly boy” who comes to the U.S. as an army bride after a botched sex-change operation that left her mutilated.
Hedwig, a songwriter and performer, falls in love with and helps make the teenage boy she babysits a superstar musician. Of course, he then abandons her. The premise is the concert is being performed at the same time that her creation was playing an arena-type show across the way.
Jordan Ross Siebert is staggeringly good as Hedwig. From the moment he leaps on stage in a glittering cape, fishnet stockings, high heels and long blonde wig, he captivated. We were taken in by his ad libs, his singing, and his heartbreak.
Hedwig’s husband, Yitzhak, is her back-up singer whom Hedwig treats as badly as she has been treated. Liz Cracchiolo sank into the character with pain and heart. And when she sings, the angels stand still. Cracchiolo is a joy to watch and hear.
The live rock band, called The Angry Inch, added to the urgency of the evening. Taylor Bungard, Tucker Bungard, Ryan Smith and Michael James Zimmerman not only rocked out, they were active participants in the play, often engaging with Hedwig.
Shana Nunez directed with an understanding of the material and with the courage to give her talented cast some freedom.
Arizona Onstage opened this two years ago. Opening and closing nights were the same, thanks to the pandemic. We saw it then and it was a stellar production. But there’s something about coming out of a pandemic, two years of suppressing any rock and roll tendencies, that made this production even more thrilling.
