ONSTAGE
What: Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Where: Metro Studio, 1411 Quadra St.
When: Preview show June 7. Opens June 8, continuing through June 18.
Tickets: $32 at ticketrocket.co or at 101-804 Broughton St. ($15 for preview show)
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Where do you go when you need a pair of white plastic go-go boots with platform heels?
A downtown sex shop, of course.
Jimbo Insell is the costumer and make-up artist for Atomic Vaudeville鈥檚 Hedwig and the Angry Inch. He sought suitable footwear for the lead character of Hedwig, the rock musical鈥檚 gender-fluid singer So he visited the Garden of Eden, a long-running purveyor of adult accoutrements.
鈥淚t鈥檚 half sex shop, half costume shop,鈥� Insell said. 鈥淭hey have crazy, pleathery, go-go kinds of stuff.鈥�
The platform boots worn by Griffin Leonard Lea, playing Hedwig, boast heels that are at least four inches tall. That raises the 29-year-old actor to six-foot-five. Lea will also wear a blond wig with giant rolls resembling hirsute Greek columns and costumes adorned with rhinestones, tassels and glitter.
Insell said the drag-queen makeup takes more than two hours to apply. Existing eyebrows must be glued down and powdered. New ones must be drawn on. The shape of the face must appear radically altered to look more feminine.
鈥淚 guess there鈥檚 a lot of layers to it,鈥� Lea said. 鈥淎nd you鈥檙e trying to do a lot of blending.鈥�
Atomic Vaudeville is best known for its irreverent comedy cabarets and the black-humour musical Ride the Cyclone, which had an acclaimed off-Broadway run last year.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch is directed by Britt Small, one of the company鈥檚 co-founders. Small said Atomic Vaudeville had wanted to stage the Stephen Trask/John Cameron Mitchell musical for years. However, the rights were released only recently.
Debuting in 1998, Hedwig and the Angry Inch soon earned a cult off-Broadway following. Since then, it has been produced all over the world, including a recent New York revival with Neil Patrick Harris.
Hedwig is an East German 鈥渟lip of a girly-boy鈥� who survived a botched sex-change operation. She leads a rock band called the Angry Inch, a reference to her post-surgery genitalia. The musical is known for the authentic rock-鈥檔鈥�-roll energy of its songs, edgier than musical theatre鈥檚 usual pop fare, as well as Hedwig鈥檚 outrageous autobiographical tales.
It鈥檚 a demanding role. Happily, Lea has plenty of experience portraying a somewhat similar character. He has starred in five local productions of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, playing fishnetted transvestite Dr. Frank N. Furter.
While both characters share a certain gender fluidity, there is a difference, Lea said. Frank N. Furter is bolder and likes to 鈥渢oy with people.鈥�
鈥淚 think Hedwig is more self-involved. It鈥檚 internalized. It鈥檚 this poison that seems to go through him,鈥� Lea said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a bitterness there. And a feeling the world is out to get him. There鈥檚 a lot of humour in that.鈥�
There鈥檚 another difference. Hedwig 鈥� who never leaves the stage and sings a lot 鈥� is a significantly larger role. In fact, it is the biggest Lea has had.
One of his challenges is to sing in an authentic rock style not often found in musical theatre. This isn鈥檛 so much about achieving a raspy timbre as finding the correct blend of 鈥渉ead and chest voice,鈥� Lea said. In this respect, he has tried to follow the example of such rock singers as Josh Ramsay of Marianas Trench, Adam Lambert and Don Henley.
Lea is backed by a four-piece band assembled by drummer Andrew Taylor. A music student at Humber College in Toronto, Taylor toured with Ride the Cyclone as an 18-year-old.
鈥淚 told him, make this a s--- hot band. I want a really, really great band,鈥� Small said.
The director said it was Lea鈥檚 stellar work with the Rocky Horror Picture Show that led to him being cast in Hedwig and the Angry Inch .
鈥淚 find him very good at playing sexually ambiguous characters,鈥� Small said with a chuckle.
鈥淚 just know from him playing Frank N. Furter that both men and women are both very attracted to him. He just seems to have a very captivating presence and confidence.
鈥淗e rides that beautiful line between confidence and compassion. And humility.鈥�