Fresh off an acclaimed run at the Adelaide Festival, “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” is now playing at Melbourne’s Athenaeum Theatre, with dates in Sydney to come next month.
The cult glam-rock musical, which won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, is described by the Australian production as “a celebration of love, survival, and self-acceptance.”
“With a blistering live band, razor-sharp humour, and a story that is as hilarious as it is heart-wrenching, ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ is an unmissable theatrical event.”
In an interview with Rolling Stone AU/NZ for its June–August issue, writer and original star John Cameron Mitchell looked back on the show’s roots. He called “Hedwig” a “slightly autobiographical” story of a queer teen, a failed gender-affirming surgery, and a reinvention under the lights of Berlin.
Written in the 1990s and first performed off-Broadway in 1998, “Hedwig” has long stirred discussion about gender identity and representation. But Mitchell never saw the character as strictly trans. “Hedwig has always been a bridge for people reminding them of their personal ‘otherhood’,” he said. “Everyone’s kind of a freak inside, whether they admit it or not.”
The current Australian production, co-directed by Shane Anthony and Dino Dimitriadis, stars genderqueer singer and performer Seann Miley Moore (“The Voice”) in the lead — a casting move Mitchell welcomed. It’s a marked shift from a 2020 Sydney Festival run, which was cancelled after backlash around casting a cisgender actor.
For Mitchell, those debates, and the cultural climate more broadly, reflect a generation stuck in what he called the “Oppression Olympics.”
“All the intentions were good, but it’s separated us,” he told Rolling Stone AU/NZ. “This is the tactic, which is ‘stay in your lane.’ All that identity stuff has just become another constructed thing to sell to us. It’s time for you to learn other tactics, like punk — and to get laid while you’re at it.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Mitchell recalled bad auditions from his early acting days. In the 1980s, he was a closeted performer trying to navigate Hollywood. One role, he said, stood out as “kind of homophobic.” The producer, Robert Shaye, didn’t even recognise the term. “He’s like, ‘Do you mean homoerotic?’” Mitchell remembered. “‘No, there’s many words that begin with homo!’”
“Hedwig and the Angry Inch” runs in Melbourne through July 13. The Sydney season opens July 17 at the Seymour Centre. Tickets at hedwig.com.au.