THE ANGRY INCH GETS HAPPY

by Brandon Judell

Finally, the critically acclaimed off-Broadway sensation about a "slip of a girly-boy who becomes an internationally-ignored artist" has arrived on the big screen. Now no one can ignore Hedwig and her angry inch.

Directed, written and starring John Cameron Mitchell with music and lyrics by Stephen Trask, this is the tale of Hedwig, an effeminate, impoverished East German teenager who falls in love with a callous black GI back when the Berlin Wall was still a reality. ("Our apartment was so small, my mother made me play in the oven.")

When his soldier is about to be shipped back home, the distraught Hedwig is talked into having a sex change operation so he and his beau can get married. Well, why not? After all who needs that little piece of flesh if it keeps you living in a Communist stronghold and you hardly use it anyway? The operation is botched but it does gets Hedwig into a trailer park in Kansas with his honey who immediately ditches him for younger meat.

Now Hedwig is alone with her Marlene Dietrich accent in the States, the Wall has come down, and she has no future hopes. Well, there's one. Why not become a rock star with a Farrah Fawcett hairdo?

And this is what Hedwig and the Angry Inch is about: one gal's blistering trek through fifth-rate establishments across America with her motley band ("They threw tomatoes after one performance. I had a nice salad.") while another of her ex-lovers, the stunning Tommy Gnosis (Dawson Creek's Michael Pitt), has become a superstar with songs he's stolen from her. So is anybody bitter?

Not Mr. Mitchell, who previously played Huck Finn in Broadway's Big River, Dickon in The Secret Garden, and Larry Kramer in Mr. Kramer's acclaimed autobiographical play The Destiny of Me.

"But is there any autobiography here?" I asked of Mr. Mitchell at the Berlin Film Festival, where his feature had its European premiere. After all, John had himself been an army brat with a father stationed in Germany for several years. So like Hedwig, did an enlisted man fall in love with his butt while he was sunning in the nude?

"Not really," John smiles, "There were some cute soldiers in Kansas where my father was later stationed but I was a little too young in Germany at the time to think about that. But in Kansas, at the army pool, officers and enlisted men would mix because there was only one pool. That was kind of exciting when I was 14.

"This work however is not really autobiographical," he continues. "I mean Hedwig is not as . . . Well, I guess emotionally it's more autobiographical than plot-wise. I didn't get my dick cut off. I didn't marry a GI. I didn't have a Tommy Gnosis. Tommy is actually a bit more like me because he is a general's son.

"In fact," John realizes, "the piece was more about him in the beginning, and Hedwig was a small character. But we were trying out the show in a drag club so Hedwig was the only character I could develop there. Slowly she became more interesting than Tommy and eventually took over the piece."

After sipping some water, John notes: "That was in the period 1994 through '97 when we were doing it in the clubs. Squeezebox was the first predominantly gay rock club that I ever knew about. It opened in 94, and it was a great scene. Very exciting. Deborah Harry used to perform, and there a lot drag queens were finding their voice and realizing they didn't have to lip-synch. They could have their own personality. I would watch them and learn from them because I had never done drag before. So I observed people like Cherry Vine, Lady Bunny, and Vaginal Cream Davis, true punk rock drag queens stage- diving in six-inch heels. I thought I can learn from that." And he did.

But now John's had his fill of wearing a MAC foundation. "I was actually asked to play the part of the drag queen in the original productin of Rent but I was doing Hedwig at the time, so it felt like too many drag queen roles. The really hard thing was shaving my eyebrows. That always felt kind of weird, but they did grow back. Also I think I'm sort of burnt out a little bit on acting, at least for a couple of years. I'm going to be writing or directing more. I'm working on a children's film next with a composer. It's kind of a dark story. Maybe I'll do Hedwig concerts once in a while, but it'll be hard to get me back in that wig. It was always hurting my scalp."