High heels, trash and vaudeville

The clothes for the new Broadway version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch have real rock and roll roots. Arianne Phillips’ costumes are a feat of ingenuity: lead Neil Patrick Harris doesn’t leave the stage once after he first appears, lowered to the floor wearing a gold Star Wars-style hair helmet and a flight-suit inspired by Kansai Yamamoto’s work with David Bowie. Outfits are layered, pieces are pulled off. A whole costume change occurs through a trap door, while Hedwig sits in the space underneath the bonnet of a car where the engine should be. The textiles and textures in Hedwig are the very essence of rock and roll: denim, leather, sparkles and studs. No one who sees the show will forget an incredible dress made entirely of braided wigs. Every element of every costume has its reason and purpose.

Like a drag queen that believes in her own myth, Hedwig believes she was cheated out of stardom

This is an ingeniously designed production. The show is set in the fictitious venue for Hurt Locker: The Musical, which Hedwig tells us “opened last night and closed in the intermission”. Authentic-looking Playbill programmes from the doomed show litter the auditorium floor. As the evening develops, the intricacy of the set becomes apparent – its former inhabitants act as a catalyst for the story of its current ones. Hedwig’s protégé and love interest Tommy Gnosis plays at a stadium-sized venue next to the theatre that Hedwig is in – and we hear the hits that Hedwig has written for Tommy, in snippets, through the stage door. Hedwig’s venue is miniscule in comparison. “Look at me”, she says, “On Broadway…. Well, East of Broadway…. E-Bra.”

Hedwig’s is a compelling story about difference and acceptance, set around the fall of the Berlin Wall and the old adage of “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. Hedwig – born Hansel – undergoes what becomes a botched sex change, leaving her with the eponymous “angry inch”. The narrative is one of love and loss, with Hedwig playing one-night-only dives with her band and husband, Yitzhak. This is a story about the outsider, both the transgender individual and the foreigner. The message is simple – we all need love, and life’s experiences aren’t always what we’d hoped for, but we still have hope.

Hedwig’s persona is a combination of Jayne County and Nina Hagen, with aspects of Bowie, Jim Morrison and Freddie Mercury. Like a drag queen that believes in her own myth, Hedwig believes she was cheated out of stardom. Early on in the show she refers to herself as “the internationally ignored song stylist barely standing before you”. There’s a similarity with the gender bending characters of The Rocky Horror Show – which coincidentally opened in this same Broadway location of the Belasco Theatre in 1974 – but to say that Hedwig isn’t her own character would be disingenuous to her creators. And of course both are time capsules now. Transgender politics aren’t as foreign to many as they were in the 1980s. And the audience that this show addresses wasn’t interested in Broadway back in 1998, when Hedwig was first staged – and when it would have really pushed boundaries. The generation it speaks to now is happy to spend $200 on a ticket. And that’s the phenomenon of the cult show – any art that sits so far leftfield finds an audience, and when the show’s views become more normalised, that original audience feels increasingly passionate about it, and embraces it more.

We might live in a different world today, but this show has always been slick to the core, and hilarious to boot. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. You might be a little shocked. Essentially it’s cabaret with a strong narrative and some very brave casting and production: Neil Patrick Harris doesn’t have an understudy. It’s supposed to be “real”. Any off-kilter vocals and incidents will become a feature of the show on any given evening.

The precision of Arianne’s costume work is exceptional. I first met her many years ago while she was on a mission to find me during London Fashion Week, and we’ve worked together on projects since. I’m a huge fan of her work. At one point while watching Hedwig (just as Neil Patrick Harris appeared in the dress made of wigs, with a matching ombre dip dyed wig-jacket), a friend sitting next to me leaned over and whispered: “That’s so Arianne!” And he was right. No one does a “rock costume” better than Arianne Phillips – and working with Madonna for so many years has given her a lot of experience of putting men in heels. C

hedwigbroadway.com

Canadian fashion designer Todd Lynn launched his London-based label in 2006 and is renowned for his work with P.J.Harvey, the Rolling Stones, U2 and Marilyn Manson