‘Grungier': Rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch heads to surprising Sydney venue
During a warmly reviewed premiere season at Adelaide Festival, the production made travelling through the foyer part of the experience.
'A whole trailer park was built outside the theatre that was cordoned off and punters could come in and grab a drink,' Anthony said. 'Hedwig in the show is staying in a trailer park, staying in a caravan, a mobile home, moving around the country, performing these gigs. So we [created] that outside the venue, inside the foyers and all the way into the theatre.'
Anthony said the production would reflect the seismic political changes taking place under the Trump administration in the US.
'The show is, in itself, already referencing that,' he said 'But a lot of our discussion [developing the show] was about bodily autonomy and that that's being taken away for a lot of minorities in America.'
While iOTA starred in a production in 2006, winning a Helpmann Award ahead of Hugh Jackman in The Boy From Oz, a new Sydney season has been a long time coming.
In 2020, Hugh Sheridan (Packed To The Rafters) was cast to play Hedwig at Sydney Festival until an ugly public row. Four trans advocates organised an open letter, signed by 1700 people, that demanded he be dropped because only a trans actor could play the role.
While Mitchell and Trask defended Sheridan by saying the role was never intended to represent trans people 'because Hedwig does not freely choose a trans life', producer Showtune Productions eventually cancelled the season.
'I went into a very, very dark place,' Sheridan said the following year. Devastated to be labelled 'transphobic' because he had accepted the role, he attempted suicide twice. 'How can you crush somebody's creativity and self-expression because I have not come out as trans?' he said.
The new production is being staged by different producers – GWB Entertainment and Andrew Henry Presents – who have gone to great lengths to avoid that happening again.
Anthony said that Miley Moore, who identified as non-binary, was cast after consultation with the trans and gender diverse community.
'It was really important to us that we weren't creating a work that was in the shadows of what had happened previously,' Anthony said. 'This work is a celebration. It's joyous.
'So it was really crucial that our consultation with community was rich and that we were mindful ... that there was really accurate representation in the room of the diversity of voices in relation to gender.'
Anthony said that co-director Dino Dimitriadis identified as trans and non-binary, with many of the team staging Hedwig also non-binary.
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Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
In a show for misfits, Seann Miley Moore revels in the power of Hedwig
In the hot, humid almost subterranean sweatiness of an Adelaide summer's night, actor and singer Seann Miley Moore has jumped from the stage of wild rock-fuelled musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch mid-show to prowl the audience aisles. It's a full-house. Rows of perspiring people, many rhapsodically seat-dancing to the live five-piece stage band's performance of the show's thrashing score, some jiggling in blonde wigs and bejewelled denim similar to Miley Moore's costume and wide croissant-like tresses, implore them to come their way. As the show's lead, the East German genderqueer character Hedwig, who has asked us, 'How did some slip of a girlyboy from communist East Berlin become the internationally ignored song stylist barely standing before you?' in the show's opening monologue, Moore accepts their pleas. 'Honey,' they say, leaning towards one person dressed in tight gauzy black. They jump to standing. Miley Moore leans closer. Suddenly, a pash, long and deep and entirely unplanned for the audience member, ensues between them. The crowd roars. Miley Moore purrs a guttural 'Whoo!' and the show pulses on. Such is the stage-spilling, passion-inducing and tune-throbbingly raw spectacle of the new Australian production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, produced by GWB Entertainment and Andrew Henry Presents and heading for Melbourne and Sydney after its premiere at the 2025 Adelaide Festival. The next morning, Miley Moore, fresh from a lunch with the South Australian governor, and licking a green ice block in 40-degree heat, says such spontaneous performer-audience moments (Hedwig fans are so passionate they have their own name – 'Hedheads') are to be expected in the show's three-city season. 'That's the power of Hedwig, honey, the power of the wig,' they say. 'They're breathing it all in.' Miley Moore, a contestant on The Voice who went on to star in Miss Saigon, says they are connected heart and soul to the live concert nature of this highly immersive production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. 'It's absolute pride and power up there,' they say. 'It's a rock 'n' roll show, a pride show. It is music. The audience are involved. I'm involved. It's hot and heavy in there. You absolutely feel it. It's been exhilarating, confronting as all hell up there and just such a transformative experience for me. 'This show is an absolute beacon of liberation. It's a trailblazer of queer cinema, queer musical theatre. It's a beacon of such queer spirit, non-binary spirit, trans spirit, of someone finding their true selves. 'It's an absolute liberation for the person you're meant to be in this world.' With text by John Cameron Mitchell and lyrics by Stephen Trask, Hedwig and the Angry Inch – born from a character created in downtown New York clubs in the 1990s and known for a cult 2001 movie (also starring Mitchell) – debuted as a musical off Broadway in 1998. Productions have run in almost 20 countries since, including a multi-Tony Award-winning 2014 Broadway show starring Neil Patrick Harris and, more recently, Mitchell's stripped back 2019 production, The Origin of Love Tour: The Songs and Stories of Hedwig, which they also starred in. In Australia Hedwig and the Angry Inch premiered in 2006, with iOTA winning several awards in the lead role. An aborted 2020 production was to have starred Hugh Sheridan. Blending punk, blues, heavy metal and rock 'n roll, the musical is Hedwig telling her story. Forced into botched gender reassignment surgery as a way to marry an American soldier and flee Berlin, she is left with a dysfunctional mound of flesh, the 'angry inch' (described as having 'a scar running down it like a sideways grimace on an eyeless face' in the musical's song Angry Inch). When we meet Hedwig she is performing a low-rent gig with her band, The Angry Inch, as the US concert tour of rock star Tommy Gnosis plays nearby (heard when Hedwig opens a door on-set). Gnosis collaborated musically with Hedwig before fame (his success comes from those songs) and began a relationship, but he has abandoned her. Aiding Hedwig during her tour is a surly Croatian Jewish drag queen, Yitzhak, played by Adam Noviello, with whom she has a toxic co-dependency. Noviello, who has a long-term love for the film and musical, sees himself in its themes. 'To me, the show, film and the character of Hedwig have always represented the in-betweenness of human beings and of gender, music and expression,' they say. 'Personally, I feel like I've spent my whole career and my whole life on that spectrum. 'The misfits, the losers, we've always felt like that growing up and in our careers.' Seann Miley Moore 'Hedwig is one of those rare beauties of a role where as gender-diverse people, and as trans people and as artists, we see ourselves. She represents our otherness and our fabulousness and our traumas and our battles. So, she's a very big deal for us.' Miley Moore agrees by singing from the song Midnight Radio in the show's finale. ' The misfits, the losers, we've always felt like that growing up and in our careers,' they say. 'But, to do it in this, it's two queens colliding and queer excellence on that stage and we both feel absolute pride and power up there. 'And we're both Scorpios so it's hot.' The musical's songs, from Wig in a Box to Tear Me Down, The Wicked Inch and The Origin of Love, lead much of the show, swinging from full body guttural rock to heart-rending emotional sorrow. In Adelaide's aptly named Queens Theatre, Midnight Radio soars to its ending – ' All the misfits, and the losers/Well you know you're rock and rollers/Spinning to your rock and roll/Lift up your hands ' – bringing some audience members to tears while waving their arms in the warm muggy air. This physical connection to Hedwig begins long before the show's ruched powder blue circular curtain rises above the stage. In Adelaide, a whole trailer park, with wooden refreshment booths under lines of pegged washing, was built outside the theatre as a nod to Hedwig's on-tour life living in a mobile home between gigs. Audience members could visit her caravan, filled with personal effects and memorabilia, before watching a pre-show bar show. Co-directors Shane Anthony and Dino Dimitriadis say this set-up – also planned for Melbourne and Sydney venues – is about transcending boundaries of audience, cast and the stage. 'The show feels big in its themes, big in its appeal to love, big in its appeal to identity and self-searching, big in its appeal to cultures and across different continents,' Anthony says. 'We wanted to make that concrete for the audience, both in the immersive experience provided before the show, but also inside the venue.' Anthony, who vividly recalls seeing the 2014 Broadway production starring Harris, believes Hedwig and the Angry Inch affects people deeply whoever they are. 'It lands in your DNA in a really exciting way,' he says. 'It hits you. You don't immediately understand it, but it taps into something that's more transcendent, more universal, more about the human condition. 'John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask have created something that mines truth and authenticity with characters in a way that perhaps a lot of musicals don't,' he says. 'It's about searching for love and it's done in an incredibly poetic way. 'Those songs are poems. They're explosive, they're dynamic, and I think they resonate with any audience member who's wanting to find love.' As their ice-blocks melt and the sun beats on in Adelaide, Miley Moore and Noviello echo Anthony's words. 'As much as the show is built to and will empower the queer community, it's absolutely a universal story,' Noviello says. 'So much of Hedwig's journey has her caught in a cycle of abuse and now she decides to end that. 'As the show progresses, she's choosing goodness, she's choosing wholeness and choosing love going forward and that's all of our story. We all have to make that decision within ourselves to lead with love and kindness. It's not taught to everyone. 'As much as Hedwig is for queer folks, her story is absolutely for everyone.' Miley Moore lets out a whoop before licking drips of ice-block off their arm. 'And who doesn't love rock and roll baby?' they say. 'Whatever the temperature is, hot or cold, we're dealing with all the elements, all the emotions in there.' They mime a lingering kiss. 'On and off the stage.'
The Age
5 days ago
- The Age
In a show for misfits, Seann Miley Moore revels in the power of Hedwig
In the hot, humid almost subterranean sweatiness of an Adelaide summer's night, actor and singer Seann Miley Moore has jumped from the stage of wild rock-fuelled musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch mid-show to prowl the audience aisles. It's a full-house. Rows of perspiring people, many rhapsodically seat-dancing to the live five-piece stage band's performance of the show's thrashing score, some jiggling in blonde wigs and bejewelled denim similar to Miley Moore's costume and wide croissant-like tresses, implore them to come their way. As the show's lead, the East German genderqueer character Hedwig, who has asked us, 'How did some slip of a girlyboy from communist East Berlin become the internationally ignored song stylist barely standing before you?' in the show's opening monologue, Moore accepts their pleas. 'Honey,' they say, leaning towards one person dressed in tight gauzy black. They jump to standing. Miley Moore leans closer. Suddenly, a pash, long and deep and entirely unplanned for the audience member, ensues between them. The crowd roars. Miley Moore purrs a guttural 'Whoo!' and the show pulses on. Such is the stage-spilling, passion-inducing and tune-throbbingly raw spectacle of the new Australian production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, produced by GWB Entertainment and Andrew Henry Presents and heading for Melbourne and Sydney after its premiere at the 2025 Adelaide Festival. The next morning, Miley Moore, fresh from a lunch with the South Australian governor, and licking a green ice block in 40-degree heat, says such spontaneous performer-audience moments (Hedwig fans are so passionate they have their own name – 'Hedheads') are to be expected in the show's three-city season. 'That's the power of Hedwig, honey, the power of the wig,' they say. 'They're breathing it all in.' Miley Moore, a contestant on The Voice who went on to star in Miss Saigon, says they are connected heart and soul to the live concert nature of this highly immersive production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. 'It's absolute pride and power up there,' they say. 'It's a rock 'n' roll show, a pride show. It is music. The audience are involved. I'm involved. It's hot and heavy in there. You absolutely feel it. It's been exhilarating, confronting as all hell up there and just such a transformative experience for me. 'This show is an absolute beacon of liberation. It's a trailblazer of queer cinema, queer musical theatre. It's a beacon of such queer spirit, non-binary spirit, trans spirit, of someone finding their true selves. 'It's an absolute liberation for the person you're meant to be in this world.' With text by John Cameron Mitchell and lyrics by Stephen Trask, Hedwig and the Angry Inch – born from a character created in downtown New York clubs in the 1990s and known for a cult 2001 movie (also starring Mitchell) – debuted as a musical off Broadway in 1998. Productions have run in almost 20 countries since, including a multi-Tony Award-winning 2014 Broadway show starring Neil Patrick Harris and, more recently, Mitchell's stripped back 2019 production, The Origin of Love Tour: The Songs and Stories of Hedwig, which they also starred in. In Australia Hedwig and the Angry Inch premiered in 2006, with iOTA winning several awards in the lead role. An aborted 2020 production was to have starred Hugh Sheridan. Blending punk, blues, heavy metal and rock 'n roll, the musical is Hedwig telling her story. Forced into botched gender reassignment surgery as a way to marry an American soldier and flee Berlin, she is left with a dysfunctional mound of flesh, the 'angry inch' (described as having 'a scar running down it like a sideways grimace on an eyeless face' in the musical's song Angry Inch). When we meet Hedwig she is performing a low-rent gig with her band, The Angry Inch, as the US concert tour of rock star Tommy Gnosis plays nearby (heard when Hedwig opens a door on-set). Gnosis collaborated musically with Hedwig before fame (his success comes from those songs) and began a relationship, but he has abandoned her. Aiding Hedwig during her tour is a surly Croatian Jewish drag queen, Yitzhak, played by Adam Noviello, with whom she has a toxic co-dependency. Noviello, who has a long-term love for the film and musical, sees himself in its themes. 'To me, the show, film and the character of Hedwig have always represented the in-betweenness of human beings and of gender, music and expression,' they say. 'Personally, I feel like I've spent my whole career and my whole life on that spectrum. 'The misfits, the losers, we've always felt like that growing up and in our careers.' Seann Miley Moore 'Hedwig is one of those rare beauties of a role where as gender-diverse people, and as trans people and as artists, we see ourselves. She represents our otherness and our fabulousness and our traumas and our battles. So, she's a very big deal for us.' Miley Moore agrees by singing from the song Midnight Radio in the show's finale. ' The misfits, the losers, we've always felt like that growing up and in our careers,' they say. 'But, to do it in this, it's two queens colliding and queer excellence on that stage and we both feel absolute pride and power up there. 'And we're both Scorpios so it's hot.' The musical's songs, from Wig in a Box to Tear Me Down, The Wicked Inch and The Origin of Love, lead much of the show, swinging from full body guttural rock to heart-rending emotional sorrow. In Adelaide's aptly named Queens Theatre, Midnight Radio soars to its ending – ' All the misfits, and the losers/Well you know you're rock and rollers/Spinning to your rock and roll/Lift up your hands ' – bringing some audience members to tears while waving their arms in the warm muggy air. This physical connection to Hedwig begins long before the show's ruched powder blue circular curtain rises above the stage. In Adelaide, a whole trailer park, with wooden refreshment booths under lines of pegged washing, was built outside the theatre as a nod to Hedwig's on-tour life living in a mobile home between gigs. Audience members could visit her caravan, filled with personal effects and memorabilia, before watching a pre-show bar show. Co-directors Shane Anthony and Dino Dimitriadis say this set-up – also planned for Melbourne and Sydney venues – is about transcending boundaries of audience, cast and the stage. 'The show feels big in its themes, big in its appeal to love, big in its appeal to identity and self-searching, big in its appeal to cultures and across different continents,' Anthony says. 'We wanted to make that concrete for the audience, both in the immersive experience provided before the show, but also inside the venue.' Anthony, who vividly recalls seeing the 2014 Broadway production starring Harris, believes Hedwig and the Angry Inch affects people deeply whoever they are. 'It lands in your DNA in a really exciting way,' he says. 'It hits you. You don't immediately understand it, but it taps into something that's more transcendent, more universal, more about the human condition. 'John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask have created something that mines truth and authenticity with characters in a way that perhaps a lot of musicals don't,' he says. 'It's about searching for love and it's done in an incredibly poetic way. 'Those songs are poems. They're explosive, they're dynamic, and I think they resonate with any audience member who's wanting to find love.' As their ice-blocks melt and the sun beats on in Adelaide, Miley Moore and Noviello echo Anthony's words. 'As much as the show is built to and will empower the queer community, it's absolutely a universal story,' Noviello says. 'So much of Hedwig's journey has her caught in a cycle of abuse and now she decides to end that. 'As the show progresses, she's choosing goodness, she's choosing wholeness and choosing love going forward and that's all of our story. We all have to make that decision within ourselves to lead with love and kindness. It's not taught to everyone. 'As much as Hedwig is for queer folks, her story is absolutely for everyone.' Miley Moore lets out a whoop before licking drips of ice-block off their arm. 'And who doesn't love rock and roll baby?' they say. 'Whatever the temperature is, hot or cold, we're dealing with all the elements, all the emotions in there.' They mime a lingering kiss. 'On and off the stage.'
Sky News AU
7 days ago
- Sky News AU
Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster's extensive relationship timeline revealed through throwback photos over more than two decades
Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster went from Broadway friends to lovers over the course of 23 years. Jackman and Foster's relationship was confirmed earlier this year after months of speculation when People magazine published photos of the couple holding hands on a date night in Los Angeles in January. What appeared to be the start of their whirlwind romance was, in fact, the ultimate culmination of years of being acquainted. Here's a look back at how the Deadpool & Wolverine star, 56, and the 50-year-old Younger actress's friendship blossomed into something more. Decades of dynamic In 2002, Foster and Jackman's careers were on the rise in the Broadway scene. While Foster starred as Millie Dillmount in the musical Thoroughly Modern Millie, Jackman visited her backstage at one of her performances. The actress later won a Tony Award for her act. The following year, Jackman starred on Broadway as the titular role in the hit musical The Boy from Oz. In 2021, Foster took to Instagram to recount their meeting two decades ago through a throwback photo of the pair behind the scenes. "Backstage at Thoroughly Modern Millie almost 20 years ago. Millie and Wolverine. Harold and Marian," she wrote in the caption. Early Broadway days Jackman and Foster were pictured again in 2008 when she starred as Princess Fiona in Shrek: The Musical. The fresh-faced duo documented their encounter backstage with a photo. Foster could be seen leaning slightly towards Jackman. At the time, the Australian A-lister was set to star in several notable projects, including the drama film Australia, alongside Nicole Kidman. He beamed beside Foster in a black leather jacket and shirt. Another of the first photos of Jackman and Foster surfaced on Instagram, showing her placing an affectionate hand on him in 2008. Dance the night away In 2014, Jackman and Foster shared a dance during Jackman's performance at the 68th Tony Awards in 2014. The Greatest Showman star hosted the ceremony at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. He waltzed with the actress throughout the audience while introducing the category for best performance by a leading actress in a musical. Jackman also danced with the other nominees on the glamorous evening. The following day, Foster gushed over the moment on Instagram, writing, "This happened." Broadway buddies In 2019, Jackman and Foster were announced as the leads of The Music Man. The Broadway production saw Jackman as Harold and Foster as Marian. In November 2021, the X-Men star took to Instagram to share a behind-the-scenes look at the production. 'We're coming your way Broadway. And here's a sneak at what we're packing,' he wrote in the caption. Jackman and Foster beamed widely while walking the red carpet together for the opening night in February 2022. An insider at The Music Man said the co-stars did not shy away from showing affection for each other backstage throughout their run. "At intermission, Sutton and Hugh would stand and hug for a minute, two minutes in front of the entire cast coming up the stairs," the source told Daily in January. The Broadway stars performed a number from the show at the 75th Tony Awards in June 2022. While Jackman and Foster were nominated respectively for best actor and best actress, they didn't secure a win. Jackman and Foster wrapped up the musical in January 2023. Double dates The insider also said the Wolverine star and his ex-wife Deborra-Lee Furness, 69, opened their home to Foster and her ex-husband of ten years Ted Griffin for double dates during The Music Man. "They had dinners with each other's spouses and Sutton and her husband Ted were invited over for dinner with Hugh and his wife Deborra-Lee," the source said. Respective separations Jackman and Foster separated from Furness and Griffin, respectively, within a year of each other. In September 2023, Hollywood insiders were rattled when the Deadpool & Wolverine star and Furness ended their seemingly rock-solid marriage of 27 years, jointly revealing they simply grew apart. 'We have been blessed to share almost three decades together as husband and wife in a wonderful, loving marriage,' the former power couple wrote in a statement. 'Our journey now is shifting, and we have decided to separate to pursue our individual growth.' Nearly two years later, Furness filed for divorce from Jackman in New York last Friday. Furness's lawyer Elena Karabatos submitted further filings, which include a health care coverage notice, a proposed qualified medical child support order, a New York state case registry form, the settlement, a proposed judgment of divorce, and a certificate of dissolution of the 27-year union. The exes share two children, Oscar, 25, and Ava, 19. Foster split Griffin, whom she was married to for ten years, last October. They share a seven-year-old adopted daughter, Emily. Head over heels An insider told Page Six Foster and Jackman were "100 per cent together" around the time of her divorce from Griffin. 'They are 100 percent together and are in love and want to spend the rest of their lives together,' the source said. Multiple insiders explained the two were keeping their romance out of the public eye but claimed their relationship was 'common knowledge.' Affair rumours Rumours Jackman and Foster had had an affair gained traction in November 2024 when a friend of Furness spoke out. Actress Amanda de Cadenet claimed the rumours were 'on point' on Instagram 'My beloved friend Deb is about to have her glow up any moment FYI!' de Cadenet wrote. On Wednesday, Furness made a pointed statement about her "traumatic journey of betrayal" after finally filing for divorce from Jackman. She told her "heart and compassion goes out to everyone who has traversed the traumatic journey of betrayal. "It's a profound wound that cuts deep, however I believe in a higher power and that God/the universe, whatever you relate to as your guidance, is always working FOR us," the actress said. "This belief has helped me navigate the breakdown of an almost three-decade marriage. I have gained much knowledge and wisdom through this experience. Even when we are presented with apparent adversity, it is leading us to our greatest good, our true purpose. "It can hurt, but in the long run, returning to yourself and living within your own integrity, values and boundaries is liberation and freedom." Hard launch Foster and Jackman took their romance public in January 2025 when they were spotted holding hands in Santa Monica, California. That same month, photos surfaced of the lovebirds making out in an In-N-Out drive-thru in San Fernando, California. The former co-stars were seen laughing and kissing in a Range Rover. The couple is believed to be moving into Jackman's New York penthouse, which he purchased for USD$21.12 million (AUD $30 million) in 2022 with Furness. According to one source close to the Oscar-nominated who spoke to Closer in February, Jackman 'wants to make Sutton his wife' after recommitting to Foster following a trip back to Australia. The source said the timing of Jackman's official divorce from Furness will impact when he can get married again, but that 'as soon as they are both free and clear, they (Jackman and Foster) want to walk down the aisle'.
