History Theatre / HedwigAndTheAngryInch

** Averted in the Broadway production. Lena Hall actually sounds quite convincing - [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome There's a reason she won the Tony for Best Actress in a Featured Role!]]

''Hedwig And The Angry Inch'' is a 1998 off-Broadway {{rock opera}} by Stephen Trask and John Cameron Mitchell, adapted into a film in 2001. ''Creator/NeilPatrickHarris'' won a Tony award for the spring 2014 Broadway revival. This article deals mainly with the movie.

''Hedwig And The Angry Inch'' is a 1998 off-Broadway {{rock opera}} by Stephen Trask and John Cameron Mitchell, adapted into a film in 2001. The play will open on Broadway in 2014, starring ''Creator/NeilPatrickHarris.'' This article deals mainly with the movie.

''Hedwig And The Angry Inch'' is a 1998 off-Broadway {{rock opera}} by Stephen Trask and John Cameron Mitchell, adapted into a film in 2001. This article deals mainly with the movie.

* {{Mondegreen}}: During the limo scene, Hedwig and Tommy are singing along to "The Origin Of Love." Hedwig hears Tommy sing "and the Cyrus" (or possibly "and the Sirens") instead of Osiris. Also includes a {{Precision F-Strike}} when Hedwig says "There's one version of the lyrics and you fucked it up!"

* {{Ambiguous Gender}}: Yitzak is played by Miriam Shor, who makes a [[AttractiveBentGender rather convincing man]]. Their biological sex is kept ambiguous in the movie; a scene showing that Yitzak is biologically male was cut from the film in order to ensure ViewerGenderConfusion. The only unambiguous aspect of Yitzak's gender is that they want to be feminine, but Hedwig forces them to dress as a man.

* {{Chekhovs Gun}}: During a lame standup routine, Hedwig makes a throwaway joke about immigration, reassuring her audience that she has her East German bandmates' passports right on her person. It becomes a plot point when Yitzak tries to leave her.

* {{Jerkass}}: Hedwig again. Her treatment of Yitzak is outright psychological abuse.
** Surely Hedwig's a ''JerkassWoobie'' if ever there was one...

* LarynxDissonance: The only thing that stops Miram Shor, as Yitzak, from being a completely convincing male is that she has a distinctly feminine voice.

* LimitedWardrobe: Yitzak wears the same outfit throughout the movie, in stark contrast to Hedwig's elaborate and ever-changing wardrobe. Also a {{Running Gag}} in the form of a track suit, worn by several characters. And they have to strip down in the laundromat to do their laundry, as the band members have few extra outfits.

* MindScrew

** In the movie Hedwig shouts [[{{Tommy}} "Tommy, can you hear me?"]] when talking about Tommy Gnosis.

* UnusualEuphemism: "My 'bishop in a turtleneck.'"

* {{Ambiguous Gender}}: Yitzak is played by Miriam Shor, who makes a [[AttractiveBentGender rather convincing man]]. Her biological sex is kept ambiguous in the movie; a scene showing that Yitzak is biologically male was cut from the film in order to ensure ViewerGenderConfusion. The only unambiguous aspect of Yitzak's gender is that she wants to be feminine, but Hedwig forces her to dress as a man.
** Just what gender Hedwig identifies as is debatable as well. The sex change operation was for convenience in escape, not because he wanted to be a woman. After getting the titular inch, he seems to go back and forth on whether or not he wishes to be a man.

** "Here's to [[Music/PattiSmith Patti]], and [[Music/TinaTurner Tina]], and [[Music/YokoOno Yoko]], [[Music/ArethaFranklin Aretha]], and Nona, and [[Music/VelvetUnderground Nico]] and me."

** "Here's to [[Music/PattiSmith Patti]], and [[Music/TinaTurner Tina]], and [[Music/YokoOno Yoko]], [[Music/ArethaFranklin Aretha]], and Nona, and [[Music/TheVelvetUnderground Nico]] and me."

** "Here's to Patti, and Tina, and Yoko, Aretha, and Nona, and Nico and me."

* WeCouldHaveAvoidedAllThis: Almost immediately after Hedwig gets a botched sex operation and marries Luther to escape East Berlin, the Berlin Wall crumbles down, as [[TearJerker Hedwig watches it live on tv.]]

* AttractiveBentGender: Even with a good gendar, you have to keep reminding yourself Hedwig's a guy.

No relation to [[Literature/HarryPotter a certain snowy owl.]] but [[MyImmortal Tara Gilesbie may think so]] based on her [[TransplantedCharacterFic portrayal]] [[CharacterDerailment of Hedwig.]]

No relation to [[Literature/HarryPotter a certain snowy owl.]] but [[MyImmortal Tara Gilesbie may think so]] based on her [[TransplantedCharacterFic portrayal]] [[CharacterDerailment of]] [[NotAsYouKnowThem Hedwig.]]

No relation to [[Literature/HarryPotter a certain snowy owl.]] but [[MyImmortal Tara Gilesbie may think so.]]

No relation to [[Literature/HarryPotter a certain snowy owl.]] but [[My Immortal Tara Gilesbie may think so.]]

No relation to [[Literature/HarryPotter a certain snowy owl.]] but [[My Immortal Tara Gilesbie may think sol.]]

No relation to [[Literature/HarryPotter a certain snowy owl.]]

* LimitedWardrobe: Yitzak wears the same outfit throughout the movie, in stark contrast to Hedwig's elaborate and ever-changing wardrobe.

* EpicSong: ''Midnight Radio''.

No relation to [[Literature/HarryPotter a certain snowy owl.]]

Recently, [[http://www.nypost.com/p/entertainment/theater/hedwig_inches_to_way_stage_CyesdeRQZ8TBdsZGkjjFNL a Broadway run was announced]] for Fall 2010, [[AndTheFandomRejoiced starring John Cameron Mitchell himself]].

--> ''On August 13, 1961, a wall was erected down the middle of the city of Berlin. The world was divided by a cold war and the Berlin Wall was the most hated symbol of that divide. Reviled, graffitied, spit upon. We thought the wall would stand forever. And now that it's gone, we don't know who we are anymore. Ladies and gentlemen, Hedwig is like that wall! Standing before you in the divide between East and West, slavery and freedom, man and woman, top and bottom! And you can try and tear her down...''

* EverybodyWantsTheHermaphrodite: Hedwig becomes a [[MemeticSexGod Memetic Sex Diety]] in and out of world.

One day, after being kicked out of university for delivering a lecture on the "aggressive influence of German philosophy on rock and roll" tiled "You, Kant, Always Get What You Want", teenaged Hansel meets a black American soldier named Luther. Luther instantly falls in love with the boy. He leaves him a candy trail of Berlin's symbol, colorful little gummi bears, seducing Hansel and introducing him to love. Hansel's mother, realizing that her son has no future in communist Germany, decides to let Hansel undergo a sex change operation in order for him to [[CitizenshipMarriage marry and leave the country]]. She leaves Hansel her passport -- and her name.

The story follows Hedwig Robinson, who at first appears to be a male-to-female {{transsexual}}. She's the head of a not even remotely famous band called The Angry Inch. They play in dive bars to small crowds, stalking the much more successful rock star Tommy Gnosis, who -- as Hedwig explains to her audience -- stole her songs. There's much resentment withing the band, particularly between Hedwig and her aspiring drag queen boyfriend Yitzhak.

* Deadpan Snarker}}: Hedwig.
* EasySexChange: Hedwig gets a fast, cheap, and completely illegal shady operation. But because of this, the surgery became botched, leaving Hedwig with the titular "angry inch".

* MusicalWorldHypotheses}}: Most of the numbers are diegetic; however, the movie version of "Wig in a Box" is more Adaptation, and the GainaxEnding is such a MindScrew precisely because it is not clear ''which'' hypothesis is at work.