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Time Out
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Ed's Note: Hailed by Rolling Stone as 'the best rock musical ever', Hedwig and the Angry Inch is on now at Sydney's Carriageworks (you can buy tickets over here). Time Out critic Guy Webster reviewed the production last month when it was on at Melbourne's Athenaeum Theatre. Read on for his five-star review... ***** Imagine The Rocky Horror Picture Show's Frank-N-Furter raised in the American Midwest by Vivienne Westwood. Or Debbie Harry, if she grew up in a queer bathhouse in East Berlin. That's Hedwig Schmidt: the glam-rock heart of Stephen Trask and John Cameron Mitchell's Hedwig and the Angry Inch, brought to spectacular life in the first Aussie revival since 2006. You have to picture this show as it began – in a sweaty basement club called the SqueezeBox during New York's punk scene in 1994. This was a place where a house band performed rock tunes called 'the music of gay bashers', and punters put on messy drag to kick, scream and vamp on stage beside them. Hedwig was born out of this energy; a combination of cigarette ash, anarchism and smut inspired by Cameron Mitchell's life in Berlin and Kansas and soundtracked by Trask's work with the SqueezeBox band. It's the closest I've come to calling a musical 'punk' without rolling my eyes. With its taboo-flouting lead and the unbridled chaos of its style, it is still as genuinely transgressive as it was thirty years ago. This production succeeds by replicating the intimacy and anger that created the show in the first place. We're somewhere in the Midwest waiting for Hedwig to start a 90-minute cabaret performance accompanied by her band, the Inch. The set (by Jeremy Allen) evokes an industrial warehouse and a dive-bar in one: think a simple circular rise centre stage with a staircase at the back furnished with cooly metallic scaffolds and exposed wire. And the costumes (designed by Nicol and Ford) cover the stellar cast – who also double as the on-stage band – in patchwork denim and glam rock glitter. For the uninitiated, the show might seem a little impenetrable at first. There's not much of a plot, really. It's a series of loosely connected anecdotes drawn from Hedwig's life that are both surreal and debaucherous. She's gorging on gummy bears in a ditch by the Berlin Wall, discovering Lou Reed while locked in an oven, or recounting her botched gender-affirming surgery in graphic detail. But it's not a cohesive storyline that propels Hedwig and the Angry Inch. It's vibes, and Hedwig herself. Seann Miley Moore is transcendent as our glamour goddess, achieving the perfect balance of taboo-flouting confidence, unpredictability and thinly-veiled fragility in between high kicks, soaring top notes and horny audience ad libs. As her husband, the retired drag queen Yitzhak, Adam Noviello offers a soulful counterpoint: brooding, pissy, stoic. Noviello's operatic vibrato and Moore's buttery tone combine beautifully to fill the Athenaeum Theatre to overflowing. The vibe, meanwhile, resembles that propulsive brand of chaos you find drunk at an impromptu four am drag show – all sweat, screams and in-cast fighting underscored to a pub-rock backbeat (and the occasionally eerie theremin from expert music director, Victoria Falconer). It is refreshing to see a show that avoids the trap many other revivals of queer theatrical classics fall into by leaning into its transgressiveness instead of a nostalgia-heavy approach that would relegate it to being a mere artefact of a recent past. Co-directors Shane Anthony and Dino Dimitriadis have worked hard to faithfully replicate the show's underground origins for the mainstage, leaving its essential edge intact. We're clapping along to Hedwig's anthem for sugar daddies or watching a group of unsuspecting audience members don blonde wigs to join in on the chorus of 'Wig in a Box'. Even tropes like glitter bombs and balloon drops feel intimate in their immersiveness. Moore also never shies away from Hedwig's flaws, whether via her morally dubious actions or jarring ad libs. In a world as risk-adverse as mainstage musical theatre, her thornier characteristics – matched by equally unbridled design and direction – make for a show that feels authentic and even quietly radical. We talk a lot about the mainstreaming of queer culture these days. Look! There's a Pride flag shirt at Target, another off-shoot of Ru Paul's Drag Race, another green-lit Ryan Murphy series or another cop at Mardi Gras. We should be critical of connecting political progress with Absolut Vodka bottles covered in rainbow flags, or a floating shark decked out in Pride colours. But there hasn't been a rainbow-coloured corporate wave for Pride this year, or even a tepid ripple. Late last month J.K. Rowling created an organisation dedicated to offering legal funding designed to support transphobia. This week there's the possibility of a Pride march in Tel Aviv while Palestinians are murdered in line waiting for aid. SqueezeBox has been closed for years. I do not mean to imply that this production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch is somehow politically radical or world changing. It's not going to force us marching into the streets to protest queer freedoms – to throw new 'bricks' in defence of new 'Stonewalls'. But it did have nearly 880 people laughing at Moore doing an impression of an owl as they treated Rowling's transphobia with all the ridiculousness it deserves. It did end with us leaping to our feet to applaud a cast of gender-diverse people telling a story of connection and identity that began more than thirty years ago in a small club somewhere on the margins. Where this production succeeds is in making us believe that Hedwig Schmidt would at least lead us outside and hand us a brick – and that we'd have cause, mixed with a healthy dose of punk-like anger, to throw it with her.
Toronto Star
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Toronto Star
Do the ‘Time Warp' again and sing along to ‘Xanadu' in this week's repertory film offerings
Tim Curry as Frank-N-Furter, Patricia Quinn as Magenta and Nell Campbell as Columbia in the 1975 movie 'The Rocky Horror Picture Show.' Twentieth Century Fox flag wire: false flag sponsored: false article_type: : sWebsitePrimaryPublication : publications/toronto_star bHasMigratedAvatar : false :
Axios
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Axios
Historic Beach Theatre returns to life in St. Pete Beach
Some 500 days, three hurricanes and one massive renovation later, the historic Beach Theatre officially opens tonight. Why it matters: It marks a new era for the sky-blue St. Pete Beach landmark, which originally opened in 1940 and has sat closed since 2012. Grand-opening celebrations are planned throughout the weekend, featuring live local music and showings of " A New Wave: Revival of The Beach Theatre," a documentary about the theater's history and renovations. What they're saying: "It's so surreal," the theater's director, Hannah Hockman, 26, told Axios. "It's been a long road to finally get here, but we're so excited to finally welcome people back." State of play: Hockman, a St. Pete Beach resident with a theater degree from Eckerd College, bought the venue with her entrepreneur parents on Leap Day last year, and renovations began in August. Among the upgrades, per the Tampa Bay Times: a brand-new interior with 175 tall-person-approved seats, an "Art Deco meets beach" decor theme, and touches from history, like vintage movie posters and the original red marquee letters. The new-and-improved venue will show two or three movies and hold at least one live event per month. A play festival, featuring staged readings of three works by local playwrights, is already on the docket for September. Flashback: The original theater opened on Jan. 15, 1940, with a showing of "Dust Be My Destiny," the St. Pete Catalyst reported. It was Pinellas County's first theater built to accommodate films with sound. As its ownership changed hands over the decades, the theater hung onto its independent roots and underwent cosmetic upgrades, like new seats and fresh paint. Its most recent run was helmed by Hollywood screenwriter Michael France Jr. and featured regular weekend screenings of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show." The aging theater closed in 2012, and France died the next year. The owner before the Hockmans bought the venue in 2021 and decided to sell after seeing how much work it would take to revamp it. What's next: While tonight's event is sold out, the theater will host grand-opening celebrations all weekend, as well as on Monday night for hospitality and entertainment industry workers who work weekends, Hockman said.
The Irish Sun
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Irish Sun
‘It's more work than I thought', admits RTE star Jen Zamparelli begins rehearsals for iconic West End musical
RTE star Jennifer Zamparelli has begun rehearsals on an iconic West End musical - and fans can see her in action this summer. The Ireland this August. Advertisement 3 Jennifer Zamparelli will star in The Rocky Horror Picture Show 3 Jen jetted over the London to rehearse for the show 3 Jen updated fans on her first day of rehearsals The renowned stage show will take to the stage at Energy Theatre from Monday, August 11 to Wednesday, August 16. The musical will then Opera House from August 25 to 30. Jen will be joining Aussie singer , The 45-year-old jetted over to Wimbledon Theatre. Advertisement READ MORE IN JEN ZAMPARELLI The Dublin star was ecstatic to start her journey working on the famous show and documented her day. As she walked up to the theatre, Jen filmed the outside of the venue and wrote: "Lets go!!!! Rocky Horror rehearsals!!" Jen finished up the run through, but admitted to feeling slightly taken aback by the work load. The mum-of-two recorded herself leaving the theatre and said: "So I just finished my first rehearsal there and it's kind of more than I thought. Advertisement Most read in News TV "There a lot of work in it. But the guys are lovely." Earlier last week, Jen opened up about her stage nerves while chatting to Rebecca and Brendon on 98FM. Jennifer Zamparelli returns on air The host confessed: "Everytime I talk about it I get even more scared. Because its one thing to stand on a stage, but standing next to West End actors and Jason Donovan and doing the Time Warp is a different level of fear." Jen told how she was delighted to land the role of The Narrator as it's "not much of a character role" and is more to do with interacting with the audience. Advertisement "So it's a bit of craic and I get to do the Time Warp." The former 2FM star shared her apprehension surrounding the idea of performing eight shows a week. She added: "I don't know if I have it in me. Time will tell." Jen recalled watching Advertisement But we're sure Jen will live up to all expectations when she hits the stage this August.
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick Celebrate Their Son Travis' 36th Birthday with Rare Photos: 'I Love My Boy'
Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick are celebrating their son Travis' birthday The longtime couple shares their son, 36, and daughter Sosie, 33 The two shared a series of photos on Instagram in honor of their son's big dayKevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick are celebrating their son's big day! On Monday, June 23, the actor, 66, and actress, 59, both shared a series of photos on Instagram as they celebrated their son Travis' 36th birthday. On Bacon's Instagram, the proud dad included a photo of his son with a piece of birthday cake, as well as snaps of the two of them with Sedgwick. "Happy birthday TSB! Boy I love my Boy," he sweetly wrote in his caption. Sedgwick also shared a few sweet photos on Instagram, which included a solo shot of Travis and the actress. The proud mom also added a throwback shot of herself and her son, alongside a much younger version of her daughter Sosie, now 33. "Happy birthday to my baby boy @svrtcntraclt ❤️," she wrote in her caption. Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Back in December, Bacon, Sedgwick, and their two kids made a rare carpet appearance at the Hollywood premiere of A Complete Unknown. On Dec. 10, the family — including the actors and their kids Sosie and Travis, as well as his partner Angelina Sambrotto — looked glam in cool ensembles in support of the Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet and Elle Fanning. Bacon and Sedgwick coordinated in all-black outfits. He wore skinny jeans and a leather jacket over his unbuttoned shirt. She looked effortlessly chic in layered jackets, a white blouse, straight-leg trousers and brown boots, all of which she accessorized with a red bag. Their kids embraced their personal styles as well, with Sosie, who takes after her mom's flair, in a punchy vermilion long-sleeve dress with a flared skirt and Travis in a black suit that complemented Sambrotto's plunging latex dress and heels. Last June, Sosie and Travis joined their parents at the Los Angeles premiere of MaXXXine. While they went dressed up in casual ensembles — she rocked a sweater dress inspired by The Rocky Horror Picture Show and he wore pants and a long-sleeve shirt — Bacon and Sedgwick went all out with their looks. The Summer I Turned Pretty actress went for a sexy vibe in a leather minidress and the Footloose actor went for a Miami Vice aesthetic in a terracotta suit and aviator sunglasses. Read the original article on People
