Hedwig and The Angry Inch

How strange that rock 'n' roll in all its flamboyance so rarely finds common ground with theater. The rock musical Hedwig is an exception. A bona fide off-Broadway smash and soon-to-be-movie, Hedwig also makes a captivating rock-'n'-roll album. The tale of a transsexual trailer-park denizen, Hedwig echoes the gender-blending audacity of late 1970s David Bowie and the hormone-stoked feverishness of early Meat Loaf. But John Cameron Mitchell's vocals and Stephen Trask's music have their own raw poetry. The spirit of Hedwig shines through: cheeky, resilient, wounded but triumphant.