Body of Work

"HEDWIG" STILL A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH
(excerpt)
November 19, 2005, Ellen Fagg, The Salt Lake Tribune

Long story short: Hedwig, that vainglorious East German transsexual rocker, has tottered back into town on her 7-inch heels, and she's mesmerizing to watch.

The character of Hedwig, as fully inhabited by the big pipes and transformative talent of local actor Aaron Swenson, is a force of entertainment who wills you to not look away as she strips herself before your eyes.

Swenson is well matched by the gritty, loud energy of the Angry Inch band as well as Jeanette Puhich as Hedwig's surly partner, Yitzak, who pulls off his own transformation story as a born-again drag queen.

But the story and the spotlight belongs to Hedwig, a pouty, raunchy, mincing drama queen. It's her over-the-top vanity that makes the particularity of her story - boy becomes scarred girl after a botched sex-change operation who is then betrayed by her born-again rock star boyfriend - seem universal.

On opening night, more than a handful of audience members seemed pleased with their own punked-out attire, while everyone appeared well-primed for a raucous party, helped by the company's temporary license to serve beer.

[HEDWIG is a] spectacle of a play whose performers successfully - even subversively - use the energy of a rock score to expose the human drive to find one's other half.