Thursday, Oct. 2, 2003 | 8:22 a.m.
When David Tapper first saw the rock musical "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," he was dumbfounded.
"I just sat there at the end," the Las Vegas theater director said.
"I didn't even applaud because I thought, 'What did I just see?' "
The poetic story of a garish, self-absorbed rock starlet on a concert tour following a botched sex-change operation can have that effect on audiences.
From the moment Hedwig asks, "How did this slip of a girlie-boy from communist East Berlin become the internationally ignored song stylist before you?," her life unfolds in an ingenious monologue.
Tapper is directing the first local production of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," opening Friday at the Nevada Theatre Company in the Lakes Town Center, near Sahara Avenue and Durango Drive.
Marcus Weiss, who performs in "Blue Man Group: Live at Luxor," plays the role of Hedwig. The local band Pilot to Orion performs as The Angry Inch, and Amy Carrelli, bassist for the local band Jupiter Shifter, performs as Yitzhak, Hedwig's significant other and backup singer.
"People think it's a drag-queen show or a punk-rock concert," Tapper said, referring to the off-Broadway musical-turned-movie that created a cult following of Hedheads.
"What they leave with is an understanding of this really complex person." Born as a boy named Hansel in 1961 (the year the Berlin Wall was erected), Hedwig later has a sex-change operation to marry an American G.I. and winds up divorced and alone in a trailer park in Junction City, Kan.
From there she forms a band that tours restaurant chains throughout middle America, trailing her former lover, Tommy Gnosis, who stole her lyrics and became a superstar.
All the while, Hedwig continues her quest for love.
By incorporating Las Vegas references into the script and the slides used as a backdrop, Nevada Theatre Company has localized the show so that it appears Hedwig is performing in Las Vegas.
Creating Hedwig
Piecing together a band with a lead singer/actor and backup singer might have been tricky for Tapper had it not been so serendipitous.
It would turn out that Tapper wasn't the only one soliciting for a part in the Obie Award-winning production, written by John Cameron Mitchell with lyrics by Stephen Trask. Weiss had long wanted to play Hedwig, a role he auditioned for in New York City before moving to Las Vegas.
Members of Pilot to Orion have also wanted to perform "Hedwig." Already familiar with the score, the band couldn't get the rights to perform it because it wasn't a professional theater company, Tapper said (to do so would be a violation of copyright laws).
So when they joined Carrelli, Tapper had a nearly ready-made cast sneaking in rehearsals when they could.
The role of Hedwig is demanding. It requires the actor to slip back in time and move seamlessly between characters while pounding out rock songs and moving ballads.
"It is an actor's tour de force," Tapper said.
Weiss has no worries about keeping up the energy, even though he will continue to perform as a Blue Man and as an understudy for "The Second City" at Flamingo Las Vegas.
"It's been my Hamlet in terms of wanting to do the role," a sleepy Weiss said following a morning's audition for a commercial. "I've been aspiring to do the role for years.
" 'Hedwig' is such an amazing combination of rock concert, cabaret and musical. The songs are very visceral. The piece is so well written that it flows very well."
But, Weiss added, "It's totally draining. The range of emotions. It really is like Hamlet."
First love
Not quite Shakespearean, Hedwig's words have their own humor and tragedy as she recounts being raised by a not-so-loving mother who taught sculpture to limbless children in East Berlin.
Hedwig also pays homage to her first love, American music.
"Our apartment was so small my mother made me play in the oven," Hedwig explains. "Late at night I would listen to the voices of the American masters, Toni Tennille, Debbi Boone, Anne Murray -- who was actually a Canadian working in the American idiom ...
"These artists made as deep an impression on me as that oven rack did on my face."
With lyrics that include "I put on my make-up, turn on the 8-track, I'm pulling the wig down from the shelf" or the "Six inches forward, five inches back, I've got an angry inch," the songs are just as engaging.
The performance, held in Nevada Theatre Company's tiny space, adds to the cabaret effect. Audiences sit on couches, beanbag chairs, pillows and at cocktail tables. Works by various artists in the community hangs on the walls.
"We allow the space to become a place that Hedwig would inhabit," Tapper said. "We're limited because we have a very small space. But (we) felt this was a musical we could handle very well and connect with our audience."
As the show begins, it's likely the Hedheads will be singing along.
"The story is universal," Weiss said. "It's not about being gay, being a drag queen, not even about rock. It's about issues all of us deal with looking for yourself. Looking for love. Looking for your place in this world.
"It's like watching a train wreck. It's astonishing what he goes through. He keeps moving on. He keeps standing."
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