Theater Review: Denver’s Local Remount of ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch’ Serves as a Triumphant Victory Lap

Last year I had the pleasure of seeing and reviewing Give 5 Productions’ local version of the groundbreaking queer punk rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, directed by Kelly Van Oosbree and starring Clark Destin Jones. At the time, I remarked that the production was “as professional as anything I’ve seen in any theater” and that “I honestly can’t imagine being any more impressed by the great Neil Patrick Harris and his cast mates than I was by Clark Destin Jones and his.” The production felt less like local theater and more on par with the caliber of a Broadway or touring production, with Jones putting on one of the greatest performances of the character I had ever seen.

It’s been a bit over a year, and Give 5 Productions has remounted the production with the same director and cast at a new location. Last year’s production ran into some difficulties with keeping their venue, so this year, they simply set up at a new venue called Ballyhoo Table and Stage, which happens to be owned by the show’s executive producer Julia Tobey. And, after attending opening night of the production, I have to say that, if Jones showed an impressive confidence in his performance as Hedwig last year, this year feels like his triumphant victory lap as he returns to the role secure in the fact that he mastered it last year and is now just having an infectiously good time with it all over again.

The show, like last year, opens with a drag show curated by local drag superstar Jessica L’Whor and a rotating cast of drag performers. The performance I saw featured Felony Misdemeanor, Chase Bottoms L’Whor, and Jessica L’Whor herself. Jessica L’Whor is a charismatic and hilarious host, even when drawing tickets for the raffle that the show holds every night. Meanwhile, all the drag performances were top-notch, but Chase Bottoms L’Whor’s drag king tribute to Ozzy Osbourne stood out as particularly fun and energetic.

For those unfamiliar with the story, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is about a person from East Berlin in the midst of the cold war who, when identifying as a boy named Hansel, was seduced by a member of the American military named Luther who offered to take Hansel with him back to the United States with him on the condition that Hansel has gender reassignment surgery and marries him. After a botched surgery and a failed marriage, the former Hansel, now Hedwig, is left alone in Junction City, Kansas where she starts a band called Hedwig and the Angry Inch. However, after tutoring a local Sargent’s son named Tommy Speck and turning him into a rock star called Tommy Gnosis, Tommy steals all the songs that Hedwig wrote for him and becomes an international superstar. The show takes place as Hedwig and her band are playing small venues following Tommy Gnosis’ tours, trying to regain credit for the songs that she wrote.

The play is designed to be heavily ad-libbed, and the performer playing Hedwig is encouraged to acknowledge the real-life location of the play and work that into the performance. However, the show is clearly designed to take place in the ‘90s, as otherwise, Hedwig’s childhood in East Berlin would put the character somewhere in their 50s or 60s. But Jones’ monologue in the performance plays with time, with a lot of anachronisms woven into the story. Somehow, Luther leaves Hedwig for a twink he met on Grindr, despite that event happening sometime around the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. This hardly matters, as the story’s main themes of loneliness and searching for oneself remain timeless, and the theme of searching for one’s gender identity has actually become even more relevant in 2025.

The play comes with a number of warnings written into the playbill that the show “covers many potentially triggering themes including gender dysphoria, genital mutilation/compulsory genital surgery, incest, sexual abuse, relational abuse, domestic/family violence, war, substance use, anti-semitism, racism, xenophobia, and sexual content.” Hedwig’s sense of humor is offensive, for certain, but we’re also not supposed to take them seriously. At one point, for example, Hedwig talks about marketing a new fragrance called “Atrocity” which she says is for a man or a woman or “one of those in-betweeners” to which she then makes the enby-phobic comment, “Yeah, make up your mind.” As offensive as that is, it’s one of the most delightfully ironic comments in the whole story, as the creator of the character, John Cameron Mitchell, has described the character as “more than a woman or a man” (a line which even appears in one of the songs), and that the ending is about Hedwig finding their true gender that transcends man or woman.

One of the harder elements of the play to stomach is the way that Hedwig treats their husband and band member Yitzhak (Emma Rebecca Maxfield). Yitzhak, a male character who is traditionally played by a woman, is someone that Hedwig discovered on tour when he was doing drag and agreed to bring on as a member of the Angry Inch on the condition that he never perform in drag again. Yitzhak is beaten down and mistreated throughout the play, but the stage version—much unlike the movie—gives Yitzhak the final moment of the play where they exit and return in “drag” and reclaim their identity, which is a moment that rarely leaves a dry eye in the house. Maxfield’s brilliant performance as the disrespected Yitzhak is matched by her stunning vocal range, which comes out in full force both in Yitzhak’s solo song “The Long Grift” and the closing of the last song “Midnight Radio.”

As for Jones, he gets completely lost in the character from the beginning of the show as he enters in sunglasses and draped in an American flag, taking a sip out of an audience member’s drink on his way to the stage. As the opening number “Tear Me Down” starts up, Jones’ explodes with energy, dancing around the stage with the confidence of someone who owns it. I noticed a few flourishes this year that were absent from last year’s production, like a little more reverb on some of the vocals, but at its core, it’s the same brilliant performance that Jones gave last year with the added element of, like I said before, a confidence that comes with having already crushed the role last year.

Ultimately, the show is just as much of an outright masterpiece as last year’s run was, and it’s an added treat that Denver gets a second run on this brilliant performance. Don’t count on a third production of this wonderful show; get your tickets now while you still can because, if last year is any indication, this run will sell out.

Photo courtesy of Give 5 Productions