Given there is so much to like about the current Ghost Light Projects production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch it is perhaps ironic that the show opens with the line: “Ladies and gentlemen, whether you like it or not…”.
Told as an extended monologue by Hedwig during one of her concerts, she recounts her metamorphosis from the young East German “slip of a girly-boy” Hansel to the tragic Hedwig who escapes communist rule through a botched sex-change. As she recovers from having been dumped by the G.I. who helped her escape, she forms the band we see tonight and helps to create a rock star out of a shy Christian boy who she renames Tommy Gnosis. Gnosis repays her by stealing her songs and goes on to being wildly-successful; not by accident Gnosis is playing at a sold-out BC Place concert, while Hedwig and her band plays The Cobalt.