Hedwig Revival?- Page 2

[metsfan]

Posted: 7/12/12 at 12:19pm

Just have to add to the Hedwig love -- nothing much new to contribute other than that. Saw every Hedwig in NYC (including understudies), most multiple times. Also loved the movie. As discussed above, I missed the theatricality and rich ambiguity of the stage ending, but agree with Jane that along with Cabaret (and IMHO Hairspray) it's the best stage-to-screen musical of the past few decades.

And temms, I'm right with you. My songwriting partner and I were at a low point, wondering if musical theater had anything new to say or do, and along came lovely little Hedwig and blew our innocent early-late-20s minds.

Great great show.

[Jane2]

Posted: 7/12/12 at 1:58pm

Henrik, yes, Hedwig could be performed at any time period. Of course, the more current, the older Hedwig would be. Because there are references to specific events in history, Hedwig's age would have to be somewhat believable on stage.

I see no reason why a middle aged or older actor couldn't do the show.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/12/12 at 5:46pm

Love Hedwig but don't remember it all that well. Is there any reason it could be set either in 1987 or, if not (but perhaps even) in the present, some time later, allowing for a fairly wide range of age possibilities, "between 40 and death" so to speak, for the role to be played (of course, the role could be played by a younger actor who can convey the age)?

Speaking only for myself, if Hedwig is late 20s/early 30s, then her bitterness toward Gnosis is unhealthy, yes, but it is still relatable.

The older you make her, however, the longer she's been holding a grudge and the crazier she becomes. At some point, she's just a not-very-amusing psychiatric case.

I'd leave the show in the 90s, where it was originally set. I don't see any plus side to setting it today and making Hedwig 50-years-old.

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 7/12/12 at 5:48pm

I saw a production a few years ago with a late 40/50 something man playing Hedwig.

It was not good. It reminded me of those really horrible drag shows I've seen with busted old queens still trying to lip-sync to Britney.

[ghostlight2]

Posted: 7/12/12 at 5:54pm

I completely agree with Gaveston and Joekv. An older Hedwig is creepy and not as sympathetic.

Also, I'll soften my stance on the movie. Had I not seen Hedwig at the Pyramid and Jane Street, I'm sure I would have loved it - but it was such a different thing.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/12/12 at 6:09pm

Is there any reason it could be set either in 1987 or, if not (but perhaps even) in the present, some time later, allowing for a fairly wide range of age possibilities, "between 40 and death" so to speak, for the role to be played (of course, the role could be played by a younger actor who can convey the age)?

The Berlin Wall came down in 1989. After the wall comes down Hedwig meets Tommy, who eventually steals her songs and becomes famous, while she mounts her shadow tour of him. There's no way the show can be set any earlier than 1995 or so.

[Jane2]

Posted: 7/12/12 at 6:09pm

I see the show as Hedwig the narrator telling the story of his/her life. It's ok with me if it all happened a long time ago.

I'd actually like to see it done with an older Hedwig. An older actor who's still young enough to do it. Cerveris was turning 40 when he was Hedwig. He had more than enough energy (anyone remember his flip onto the stage during Angry Inch?)

Doesn't have to be any busted old queen trying to lip sync.

[quizking101]

Posted: 7/12/12 at 6:12pm

" Cumming is too hard."

That's unfortunate. Tee hee.

[broadwayrob]

Posted: 7/12/12 at 6:50pm

Regardless of what they have to do to make this work. I just want the end result to be the same. This show belongs back in New York... in an appropriate venue of course.

[henrikegerman]

Posted: 7/13/12 at 9:00am

Sorry, Phyllis, I meant 1995, not 1987 (not sure where that came from, maybe it's because Hedwig does speak of her life before the wall came down, as far as I recall; but I was intending to reference the "present" time in the show) Gaveston, I appreciate your reasoning.

Still, when I read,, "The older you make her, however, the longer she's been holding a grudge and the crazier she becomes. At some point, she's just a not-very-amusing psychiatric case," I couldn't help thinking of Sally Durant Plummer and Claire Zachanassian.

(you know I live to provoke you!)



Updated On: 7/13/12 at 09:00 AM

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/13/12 at 5:45pm

Touche, henrik.

But Sally flies to a reunion to which she has been invited.

Hedwig stalks Tommy Gnosis all around the country and, in the film at least, tries to crash his CD signing. (Understandably so, if the wound is still fresh.)

Very different scales of delusion and rage.

Moreover, as someone else pointed out above, it's one thing if Hedwig has an affair with 16 or 17-year-old Tommy when she's in her early 20s; quite another if she's in her early 40s. I think it changes the play considerably if Hedwig turns into Mrs. Robinson.

I also think the ending is a "new beginning". The younger you can keep Hedwig, the more believable the new start. (I only know the film, so I'm not sure how the play ends.)



Updated On: 7/13/12 at 05:45 PM

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/13/12 at 5:51pm

The play ends more or less the same as the movie, although Hedwig actually turns into Tommy in the play. Whether they were always one and the same is up to the audience.


The only way Hedwig was in her 20s when she got with Tommy is if you set it in like 1995 or so, but even then, that doesn't work because she says in the show about She was in her (her words) early late-twenties when she met Luther.

Even in the movie, she'd have already been in thirties by the time she was with him, because in the movie she was born before the wall went up. A birthrate of 1961 makes her 28 when the wall came down.

What is unclear (at least from my remembrance) is how much time passes between her losing Tommy in Junction City and Tommy touring with the stolen songs. And that brings me to another point. It's not really about her stalking him because he broke her heart - she's most enraged because he stole her songs.

Updated On: 7/13/12 at 05:51 PM

[Jane2]

Posted: 7/13/12 at 7:32pm

I don't put much weight into how fresh the wound is. Any amount of time can pass by and as Phyllis says, Tommy did steal her music.

Anyway, re the ending. The play ends with Hedwig singing the reprise of Wicked Little Town during which he appears to be Tommy, with the silver cross painted on his forehead. Some people think he became Tommy, some think he was Tommy all along, some think Tommy and Hedwig combined to make one.

From that stage ending, and the film ending, my interpretation is based on the theme of the show, Plato's Symposium and the song (Origin of Love). Hedwig was not whole and was searching for his other half. Tommy was his other half, and at the end of the story, Hedwig was now whole. That's how I see it.

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/13/12 at 8:29pm

That's really interesting. Phyllis and Jane, of course I bow to your knowledge of the stage versions.

I interpret the end of the film, however, almost exactly the opposite: I think Hedwig recognizes the folly of chasing after his "other half" and sets out in the world, naked and alone, to create a new life for himself.

As for the age issue, even if Hedwig's primary grievance is the theft of the songs, at some point you hire a lawyer and write some new material.

Phyllis, I'm a little lost in your age calculation. (My fault, no doubt.) To me, "early late 20s" means 26 or 27. Based on the film, the events after meeting Luthor seem to happen very quickly, so I see her as 28 to 30 when she has the affair with Tommy. Still a far cry from 40 or 50.

[Jane2]

Posted: 7/13/12 at 8:36pm

Gaveston, your interpretation of the ending is fine. I believe it was meant to be open to interpretation.

But in the film, do you remember when Hedwig picks up the mirror and holds it in such a position that Tommy's face and his are each one half of the whole?

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/13/12 at 10:46pm

Yes, I do. I don't doubt that for much of the plot Hedwig THINKS of Tommy as her "other half". I just think the ending seems to show Hedwig moving on to a more contemporary concept that you have to be "whole" within yourself before you're ready to be half of a functional partnership.

BTW, I usually dislike such wide-open-to-interpretation endings, but the film of HEDWIG is totally the exception.

[BWayFanatic]

Posted: 7/14/12 at 6:24pm

Apparently someone asked on their Facebook if this was the upcoming NY prod, it says there aren't any transfer plans, so I guess not.

Still looks pretty cool though, I remember really wanting to see Prometheus Bound there, looks like the perfect space for Hedwig, if only I had a car to get to Boston

[amoni2]

Posted: 7/14/12 at 7:25pm

If they bring "Hedwig" to Broadway any time in the near future, it should be with Adam Lambert.

[Jane2]

Posted: 7/14/12 at 8:43pm

As yitzak

[JoshuaEads]

Posted: 7/16/12 at 12:22pm

Slightly off-topic, but does anyone remember the website that was up for the better part of a decade that listed all of the many community, school, professional, etc. productions of the show? Someone asked me about it the other day, but I can't, for the life of me, remember what the site was called. Anyone?

XoXoX,
Joshua

[BwayEqs]

Posted: 7/16/12 at 12:30pm

What's Hedwig? The only Hedwig I'm fimiliar with is Harry Potter's pet owl.

[Stew123]

Posted: 7/16/12 at 12:31pm

It looks like it's just a local production that someone wanted to do.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1904310070/hedwig-and-the-angry-inch-returns-to-boston

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 7/16/12 at 12:34pm

This is for BwayEqs



Updated On: 7/16/12 at 12:34 PM

Posted: 7/16/12 at 12:50pm

My two cents is that (at least in the stage version) Tommy and Hedwig both exist but that Tommy wrote the songs. He's the one who was into gods and right and wrong and predestination. Hedwig tells lots of stories that aren't quite believable so her writing these brilliant songs and Tommy stealing them to become a star is just another tall tale to me. And she still has reason to be bitter- she discovered him, dressed him up and gave him a name and he ditched her and "ran off with the good stuff."

[GavestonPS]

Posted: 7/16/12 at 5:22pm

That may be true in the stage show, Joe, but in the film, I believe we see Hedwig singing "Wicked Little Town" with her all-Korean Army wife band when she first meets Tommy in the donut shop. There's no way Tommy could have written that song or even contributed anything to it.