BRISBANE-BORN MUSICAL THEATRE PERFORMER MICHAEL FALZON HAS STEPPED INTO THE BREACH AS A LAST-MINUTE LEADING MAN IN HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH. HE TALKS TO PANSY POTTER ABOUT HIS CHARMED CAREER, AND LEARNING TO LIVE IN HIGH HEELS.

Defying doubts that Australia does not have the artistic economy to support performers, Michael Falzon has been hot property ever since his award nominated turn as leading man Galileo in We Will Rock You. Rock legend Brian May handpicked Falzon for the role, saying “the range and power of Freddie Mercury is rarely equalled, and the performer playing this role has to be a rock star. Michael was, and is, able to deliver the whole package.”
It comes as no surprise that his next appearance will be as the title role in glam rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and Falzon enthuses about both his stellar recommendation and getting back into performing after a six-month hiatus which he spent in London.
“It was encouraging that Brian and Ben Elton said ‘Yeah mate, you can do it!’,” he says. “It gave me a lot of confidence to have that support and since then I’ve really worked out what my strengths are, I suppose, but more importantly what my weaknesses are. I think it’s something that comes with your 30s! After I did War Of The Worlds last year, I was supposed to go into another show which didn’t happen, so I went over to the UK with my production company for a while. The sad thing was I was chasing the winter all over the world! I got itchy feet for performing again, so it’s good to be going back into it. This is a nice one to tackle after some time away.”
Hedwig follows the story of a young German punk rock singer who becomes the unfortunate victim of a botched sex-change operation, and journeys to America in search of true love and international success. Written by John Cameron Mitchell with music by Stephen Trask, the character of Hedwig was inspired by a German babysitter who worked for Mitchell’s family whilst growing up in Kansas. Falzon acknowledges that it’s an unlikely subject for a rock musical.
“I think any work that people want to see again and has success internationally has to have a universal appeal, even with an unlikely subject matter,” Falzon muses. “Hedwig is an unlikely character but she’s an extreme. Sometimes it’s necessary to exaggerate to get a point across and connect with as many people as you can. The story is quite harsh but uplifting too. It takes you on this whirlwind 90-minute journey about this boy who keeps getting let down by people and hiding behind these masks and wigs. It’s very uplifting and it’s wonderful as an actor to take people on that journey.”
As if playing a confused and troubled transgender artist wasn’t challenging enough, Falzon also has the privilege of playing the role in high heels – an experience he is being chauffeured through by dance legend Kellie Abbey, most recently seen as a guest judge and choreographer on So You Think You Can Dance.
“Kellie’s working hard to get me in touch with my inner woman,” he laughs. “It’s amazing what comes out once you put a pair of heels on; I’m starting to understand women’s trade secrets! I wore a bit of a Cuban heel in Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat but that was a very different sort of heel! It’s good fun discovering it and what I’m going to with it all.”
Falzon seems relatively unfazed despite the unique challenges presented by the central role of Hedwig, and looks forward to working in a much smaller venue than the entertainment centres he frequented with last year’s stage production of Jeff Wayne’s War Of The Worlds.
“We’re about halfway through rehearsals and it’s really starting to work now,” he says. “It’s been great working through all the text with the director Craig Ilott and the music director Tina Harris has been making sure I’m singing all the right notes. With rock’n’roll, there’s a tendency to embellish so the challenge is to take it back to its original form. I love singing this stuff and I’ve been pretty fortunate to work on some great big shows with some great big people. Even War Of The Worlds was fantastic! It was such a great vibe, sharing a dressing room with Shannon Noll. It’s great now to get back into the music and on the other side to get into a really nice role too. To come back to a more intimate environment is an exciting challenge!”
Joining the talented Mr Falzon onstage is fellow We Will Rock You alumnus Lucinda Shaw, who played the Killer Queen in the international tour, and was last seen as the Lady of the Lake in the Melbourne season of Spamalot. Shaw plays Hedwig’s second husband Yitzhak, an aspiring drag queen whose true gender is deliberately ambiguous. Since its 1998 off-Broadway premiere, Hedwig has garnered international critical acclaim and a cult following similar to that of The Rocky Horror Show, with even celebrities such as Cyndi Lauper, Yoko Ono and Ben Folds lending their talents to a 2004 charity tribute album entitled Wig In A Box featuring the songs of Hedwig. It was adapted for the big screen in 2001 – written, directed by and starring John Cameron Mitchell with Michael Pitt as Hedwig’s young lover. Falzon believes the enormous popularity of the piece is due to its poignant and important message.
“There are moments where you feel genuinely sorry for this poor character,” he says, “but then you see her broken down and from that she finds the strength within herself to get better. We all go through times like this in our lives, with break-ups, with deaths of loved ones, through losing a job, moving states, all these incredible things that uproot us. This is exaggerated in Hedwig and still she finds a way to come out of it. I think that’s personally significant to me for my own reasons, but everybody who is familiar with the story nods their head and you can see it in their eye, that they have been there themselves. That’s what shines through in the show! People come along to see it and they want to be entertained, and it’s all in there; the music is rocking. But you also have to remember that there is a really positive message in it. And I think that surprises people.”

WHAT: Hedwig and the Angry Inch

WHERE & WHEN: Brisbane Cabaret Festival – QPAC Cremorne Theatre from Wednesday Oct 8 to Sunday Nov 2. Bookings: www.qtix.com.au or 136 

http://www.timeoff.com.au/html/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=48:hedwig-and-the-angry-inch&catid=22:theatre-reviews&Itemid=59

Brisbane the wait is over! Hedwig and the Angry Inch is finally rocking into QPAC!

Hedwig and the Angry Inch opened in 2006 in Sydney to thunderous applause and critical acclaim, the show then swept the national theatre awards winning a Helpmann Award, two Green Room Awards, and two Sydney Critic Awards. The show originated from New York where it played for over 3 years, it has played to great acclaim all over the world since and has been turned into an award winning feature film.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch, proudly part of the Brisbane Cabaret Festival, tells the story of Hedwig Schmidt, played by Michael Falzon (star of the hit musical 'We Will Rock You'), the unfortunate victim of a gruesomely botched sexchange operation, and an "internationally ignored song-stylist". Her journey to find true love, "her other half", is a rock and roll odyssey which leads her across the Berlin Wall, across the world and from man to woman.

"The most wholly rounded piece of ROCK theatre we have seen in years"
DAVID BOWIE

"Miss this and you'll be sorry...10/10"
The Sun Herald

Time/Date
8 Oct to 2 Nov 2008

Tickets (inc. fees)
$45.50 to $65.75

Duration
1 hour and 29 minutes 
(subject to change without notice)

ELTON John and Andrew Lloyd Webber have a lot to answer for. Maybe it's not their fault entirely, but somewhere along the way, we lost our confidence in rock musicals.

Hair, Tommy, The Rocky Horror Picture Show all sprang gloriously forth from the golden Glam Rock era of the 1970s.

Ten years ago, Rent caused a minor ripple. But really, it was the peculiar story of Hedwig Schmidt – an unfortunate victim of a botched sex-change operation – that awoke the slumbering beast.

When Hedwig and the Angry Inch opened off-Broadway in February 1998, it became an instant cult classic – especially with the rich and famous.

"A lot of the celebrities would come in costume so that people wouldn't recognise them," recalls Australian director David Hawkins, whose own savage love affair with the rock 'n' roll odyssey will shortly result in Hedwig slamming right on to our doorsteps for the first time.

"Madonna used to go dressed in some drifter's outfit and (David) Bowie would be there dressed as a woman."

Following Hedwig's stage debut was an acclaimed indie movie version in 2001, and artists including Cyndi Lauper, Rufus Wainwright and Bowie collaborated on a 2004 album paying tribute to the score.

To an extent, Hedwig took up where Rocky Horror left off: with its parallels of an androgynous sexual misfit leading man and a theme about peeling back the layers of self-awareness.

Written by John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask, Hedwig's journey begins as Hansel, a young boy growing up in East Germany under Communist rule. He escapes from his dreary existence in the arms of a good-looking American GI, Luther. Luther promises to take Hansel back to the US, but only as a bride. After a disastrous sex-change operation, Hedwig is left with a one-inch (2.54cm) reminder of her past. When her husband abandons her, she finds herself trapped in a down-and-out existence in her adopted homeland, searching for love and fame.

Says Hawkins: "It's a musical for outcasts. What really excited people like (Mick) Jagger and Bowie about Hedwig, was that it was a real rock musical and not just a rehash of a bunch of rock songs that you might make stories around."

Hawkins is the victor who saw off some of our country's biggest theatre producers to secure the Australian rights to Hedwig back in 2002.

"It was a difficult process," reveals the Sydney-based Hawkins, who was bitten by the Hedwig bug when he saw the movie version.

"When Hedwig went to the UK, it went to one of the major houses and it fell on its arse. John and Stephen had big fears about that happening again here. But when I saw the film, it affected me so much, I wrote them a huge letter explaining what the piece had meant to me and how I saw it being done in Sydney.

"They told me it was because of that letter that I got it."

After years of hitting stumbling blocks – case in point: big-name producer John Frost was on board but got diverted to do Priscilla – Hawkins decided to go it alone. "Things kept falling over. It was almost like Hedwig had a life of her own. Finally, I thought, 'Why am I waiting for someone else to help me? No one else really shares the vision I have'."

Even at the 11th hour, Hedwig is still acting up. Five weeks out from opening Hawkins had to replace his leading man, Melbourne musician Ezekiel Ox, with the more tried-and-tested Michael Falzon – the Brisbane-bred star of We Will Rock You. Hawkins says he celebrates, rather than endures, the constant Rocky Horror comparisons.

"Rocky Horror was so subversive when it first came out, but the shock power of a leading man in fishnets and stilettos . . . well, it really isn't shocking any more. We see men like that on The Footy Show.

"Hedwig takes Frankenfurter to another level."

Hedwig and the Angry Inch plays at Brisbane's QPAC from October 8 until November 2; Qtix 136 246.

http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,24370894-5003423,00.html

Trans-tastic wig out!

http://qlp.e-p.net.au/feature/trans-tastic-wig-out-2230.html