Feed Your Hed

The recipe for happiness, as narrated by John Cameron Mitchell: "I put on some makeup/ Turn on the eight-track/ I'm taking the wig down from the shelf." With the film version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, writer/director/star Mitchell took the indie, queer, rock-musical, and freak worlds by storm, also gathering in Germans, military families, and those trying to make sense of the tragic absurdism of Eastern Europe. Did you know that one scene, which only made the cutting-room floor, has Hedwig's "Man Friday ... through Thursday" Yitzhak performing in lady-drag as Krystal Nacht, "the last Jewess of the Balkans"? We demand a five-hour-long director's cut, now! In the absence of that, we can honor one of the many groups of heroes portrayed in the cult film: those who perform live in unexpected places. Santa Cruz's Pacific Players present the stage version of Hedwig, and this company loooves rock musicals: It did Tommy last year and had the huevos to invite Pete Townshend.