'Rockin' 'Hedwig' sure to sell out
Ripley shines in rare rendition; he sings, too
JULIE YORK COPPENS

She's been knocked down, pushed around, made over -- but she keeps coming back.

Actor's Theatre of Charlotte's third staging of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," originally scheduled for last January but playing now on Stonewall Street, has a lot in common with the show's glam-rocker heroine. The passage of time and changes of cast -- Scott Ripley stars, directed by the previous Hedwig, Billy Ensley -- have only made her stronger.

See "Hedwig" again, or for the first time. Just get your tickets now, because while Hedwig might call herself "an internationally ignored song stylist," we're calling this long-delayed "Hedwig" a sure sellout.

Ripley, so phenomenal as transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf in last season's "I Am My Own Wife," astounds once more as Hedwig, another sexual refugee of the crumbling Eastern Bloc. The actor's spontaneity, his emotional generosity, his uncanny mimicry, his precise gestures, his easy rapport with an audience -- we see again, but in a completely different vehicle, everything that makes Ripley so rare and watchable.

And this time, he sings.

The great songs in "Hedwig," composed by New York rocker Stephen Trask, are the reason for the show's cult status, even more than John Cameron Mitchell's strange and hilarious book. Mitchell's drag-act-turned-musical chronicles Hedwig's quest, across two continents and under a series of bad wigs, for her other half: a perfect love that will close the wounds left by an uncaring East German mother, an absent American father, an incompetent genital surgeon and 20 years of isolation and dysfunction.

Of course, as we know from "The Wizard of Oz" and other fables embraced by those outside the sexual mainstream, Hedwig already has that perfect love. She needs only to recognize it, within herself -- and it's this point in the show where Ripley's performance transcends entertainment and achieves a quality that is personal, pure and one of a kind.

First, though, Ripley and the Angry Inch band have some rocking to do. The guys were tight on Wednesday's opening night, and will only get better. Troy Conn on lead guitar, Jeff Lynds on drums, Chip Decker on bass, Jeremy DeCarlos on guitar and Ryan Stamey on keyboard are all Ripley's Hedwig needs to be complete -- at least musically.

The show could use more human interaction between the players and the star; there must be a reason, after all, that the band has stuck with the hostile Hedwig this long. We get intriguing hints from newcomer Christy Johnson, incredibly a former Miss Junior Greensboro, as the goateed Yitzhak, Hedwig's mostly silent partner and punching bag. And when she sings, Johnson's Yitzhak really does steal the show, as Hedwig fears.

This production benefits, too, from Hallie Gray's rock 'n' roll lighting, which could be kicked up a notch, and from the amazing work of makeup artist Clay Smith, who obviously knows tricks I don't for making a glamorous evening look stand up under late-summer performance conditions.

Having mounted "Hedwig" in August -- a figure of speech the show's fans will appreciate -- Actor's Theatre can pitch its upcoming season to a lot of people walking in, probably, for the first time, and walking out satisfied. At the same time, the show makes us hungry to see Ripley in drag again, in a "Wife" reprise at Booth Playhouse in May.

Rock on, wild one. Theater / Julie York Coppens REVIEW

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Scott Ripley is the glam-rocker in search of love. 1 hour, 45 minutes.

WHEN: 8 p.m. today and Aug. 16-18 and 23-25. 11 p.m. shows today and Aug. 18 and 25.

WHERE: Actor's Theatre of Charlotte, 650 E. Stonewall St.

ADMISSION: $28.

DETAILS: 704-342-2251; or www.actorstheatrecharlotte.org.