Adam Goldthwaite may or may not be a diva. He was a little bit late to rehearsal last week, after all, and the character he’s currently playing – the title role in the Lord Leebrick Theatre Company’s production of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” – certainly has accumulated diva status. But that doesn’t mean Goldthwaite isn’t taking his role as the transsexual glam rocker seriously.
“It’s definitely the most challenging role I’ve played,” Goldthwaite said as he waited for The Ovulators – the real-life Eugene-based rockers playing Hedwig’s band, The Angry Inch – to tune for rehearsal. “I think Miss Hedwig has a lot of depth that some of the characters I’ve played aren’t given the opportunity to have.
“And Hedwig – it’s all in the script – she’s fully developed as her own iconic being, and I love it. It makes it easy on me as a performer because … it’s all there.”
The Lord Leebrick production is the second go at the performance for Goldthwaite and The Ovulators. In 2004, they had a successful run at the Actors Cabaret of Eugene. The story centers on Hansel, a man from East Germany before the Berlin Wall fell. He meets Luther, an American GI, and the two fall in love. Luther persuades Hansel to get a sex change operation so the two can marry and move to the United States. But the operation is botched, leaving Hansel with an inch-long scar between her legs. She still assumes her mother’s identity, becoming Hedwig (pronounced Hed-vig), and moves to Kansas City, Mo. After Luther leaves her, Hedwig falls in love with Tommy Speck. But he scorns her to pursue a wildly successful career as rock star Tommy Gnosis, using songs Hedwig wrote. Coincidentally, Hedwig’s tour with The Angry Inch follows her jilting lover’s tour.
“So while Hedwig’s here at the Lord Leebrick, Tommy Gnosis is playing Autzen Stadium, and we occasionally hear the reverberations of the Tommy Gnosis concert filtering through,” said director Craig Willis, who first saw the show in its original run in New York City when its creator, John Cameron Mitchell, was performing as Hedwig.
“The show is usually only done in small, seedy little places, so we’re perfect,” Willis said, laughing. “We’re right across from the prison and everything.”
Despite the joking self-deprecation, the intimacy of Lord Leebrick Theatre offers the audience an ideal venue for experiencing Hedwig’s glamour. Goldthwaite, who frolics around the stage in seven-inch-heeled black leather boots with flames emblazoned on the sides, rocks as Hedwig. Between berating her bass player, Yitzhak, played by Dori Prange, and belting out lyrics, Hedwig tells her backstory through monologues. And The Ovulators, along with musical director Mark Van Beever on keyboards, turn the show into the rock concert it’s supposed to be.
So how does Goldthwaite’s diva-ness affect his feelings for the band? “Oh they suck!” he said loud enough to be heard across the room. “No, they’re amazing. I love them all.”
Even though the show’s subject matter could be deemed edgy by the more conservative theater-goer, Willis assured that it is not. “I’m a pretty traditional theater person and I love the show, partially because it plays into my own quirky interest into gender identity, and I like musicals – it has some fun music,” he said before pausing briefly. “And I like drag queens,” he continued, laughing.
“My stepmother’s father, a very Republican, very Christian, older man, came to see the show last time we did it,” Goldthwaite said. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God, no, Grandpa Bob. It’s going to be really loud, you know, it’ll be very LOUD. You don’t want to come. It’s going to be LOUD.’ I didn’t even want to go into what he would be seeing me as. But after the show he was standing on his feet cheering, and he was so sweet to me. He said, ‘I had no idea you were a rock star.’”
The most important thing about the show, Goldthwaite said, is that it’s a story of love. “It’s not a show about struggling to be a gay person. It’s a story about love – finding love and finding your other half.”
The show will run Thursday through Saturday each week until March 3. The theater is offering a $10 preview show tonight. Starting Friday, tickets will be $15 for students and $17 general admission for the Friday and Saturday night shows. Thursdays are $10 for students and $12 general admission. Doors open at 8 p.m.
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