Skip to main contentThe '01 film version of the rock musical-cum-cult phenomenon Hedwig and the Angry Inch wasn't a hit movie by Hollywood standards, but it did reach a much wider audience than its off-Broadway avatar. It also gave birth to a soundtrack--to the delight of Hedwig devotees.
If you are one of those Hedwig fans, you know every word of the songs on that soundtrack by heart. If you heard those songs playing in the background of a bistro, a secret kinship with its owners was formed. You bought tickets to the Triangle! Productions stage version multiple times. You sang along while sitting in the audience, working out in your basement, driving in your car. You cried as Hedwig stumbled through her own vanity and ultimately collapsed in that difficult scene of self-recognition.
For those fans, this Thursday might as well be Christmas Day.
That's when John Cameron Mitchell, the original Hedwig (and one of the co-creators of the rock musical and film), makes an in-store appearance at Jackpot Records' downtown store. He comes to town to celebrate the latest being to spring forth from the Hedwig cosmos: Wig in a Box: The Songs from Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
Released this past Tuesday by Portland's Off Records, the tribute album features collaborations by a seemingly random team of all-stars and benefits the Hetrick-Martin Institute, the organization that begat New York's queer Harvey Milk High School.
The album opens not with a bang but a sigh, courtesy of its first collaborator, Rufus Wainwright. This sigh, which begins the song "An Origin of Love," isn't so much an anxious gesture as an excited, preparatory breath. It marks the beginning of a monumental project in which Yoko Ono teams with Yo La Tengo; the hipster gospel troupe the Polyphonic Spree makes use of its choral shtick; and Frank Black goes, once and for all, totally crazy.
It is a work of art where rock stars make sweet love to the songs of one make-believe hermaphrodite by the name of Hedwig.
Hedwig's journey from male to (almost) female, from East Berlin to Junction City, Kan., from trailer-park housewife to wannabe diva looking for redemption and royalties, is an often funny and bumpy, but ever-epic, musical ride. The original soundtrack--chock-full of angry punk songs, tear-jerkingly sad, gloopy pop ballads and more than a few singalong anthems--is instantly mesmerizing.
Wig in a Box is as much a celebration of the old songs as it is a work of artistic interpretation. It's clear that these musicians have a profound reverence for Hedwig. From Frank Black's rollicking, punkabilly version of "Sugar Daddy," Hedwig's ode to the American GI who married her and whisked her (and her newly shortened genitalia) off to America to the Sleater-Kinney/Fred Schneider punk-rock experience of "Angry Inch," it is evident that a lot of energy was brought to the table.
Even the album's slower songs paint a picture of enthusiasm and respect. Wainwright sings the aching (if not a little silly) ballad "The Origin of Love," which describes two angry gods conspiring to split apart two souls "rolled up in one." His throaty vocals are at once quiet and reserved and then cathartic at just the right moment. It is an affectionate tribute to the original, as is the minimalist treatment of "Wicked Little Town (Hedwig Version)," sung by Kim Deal of the Breeders.
In addition to the interpretations of songs about one person's transformation, some of the tracks reveal hints of the artists' own identities. On the Polyphonic Spree's rendition of Hedwig's theme song, "Wig in a Box," the band's 20-plus members are in their element. It is the album's Broadway showtune, and lead vocalist Tim DeLaughter employs his most dramatic singing voice as the rest of the group sings the chorus, all the while playing their symphonic assortment of quirky instruments.
When Cyndi Lauper sings the anthemic "Midnight Radio," she sings at the top of her lungs an ode to rock's female misfits and divas. She calls out "to Patti/And Tina/And Yoko/Aretha/And Nona/And Nina/And me," and it is a moment where the "me" is not just Hedwig, it is Lauper herself, stripped bare.
These moments of brilliance overshadow some of the album's lesser tracks, including a disruptive journey into electronica by Hüsker Dü alumnus Bob Mould. Two of the most anticipated collaborations, Yoko Ono/Yo La Tengo and the Bens (that's Kweller, Folds and Lee), fall short of their advance buzz. Nevertheless, Wig in a Box paints an impressionistic portrait and is a worthy tribute to Hedwig's multifaceted tale.
John Cameron Mitchell will be appearing at Jackpot Records, 203 SW 9th Ave., 222-0990. 5:30 pm Thursday, Oct. 23. All ages.
WWeek 2015