OAKLAND CENTER FOR THE ARTS 'Hedwig' star excels in punk-rock musical

Hedwig's quest for love and acceptance has led her -- or him -- to Youngstown.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
YOUNGSTOWN -- James McClellan has what it takes to star in the punk-rock musical "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" -- guts, chops and great legs.
"Hedwig," which made its New York debut a mere five years ago, not only takes the local audience to a new place, it reinforces the identity of Oakland Center for the Arts as the place for fresh, diverse, risky theatrical productions.
"Hedwig" opened Friday night to a near-capacity crowd.
The star of the show, Hedwig, was named Hansel while he was growing up in East Berlin, the offspring of an American soldier who walked away and an emotionally distant German woman. Hansel took to heart his mother's bedtime story about "The Origins of Love" -- how creatures that were once whole were split in half.
Feeling incomplete, the adult Hansel's quest for love and acceptance leads him into the arms of a black American soldier; onto an operating table, where he undergoes a failed sex change operation; to the United States with a new identity, Hedwig (his mother's name); lost and broke in the heartland, after Hedwig's G.I. husband leaves; and then to a babysitting job for a military officer whose teen-age son, Tommy, becomes Hedwig's rock and roll prot & eacute;g & eacute; and true love. It ends when Tommy achieves the stardom that the unknown, bitter Hedwig craves.
Head-banging
That's where "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" begins. As fate would have it, Hedwig and Tommy are playing in the same city on the same night. Hedwig vents through head-banging tunes and heartbreaking ballads.
This show isn't for everybody. The script is laden with double entendre, sex jokes, foul language and more-than-suggestive body language. The music gets fairly loud. In fact, McClellan couldn't be heard over the band in the opening song.
McClellan is startling in full Hedwig regalia, including a bustier, short black leather skirt, thigh-high stockings, black boots with big heels (to accentuate his muscular calves), blonde wigs and plenty of eye makeup. He's the same man who has played the gifted son in the family musical "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" by Easy Street Productions.
Actor's different roles
The mark of a good actor is the ability to portray distinctly different characters from role to role. McClellan achieves this not only by appearance, but also by emotion. There's a glimmer in his eye as Hedwig recounts the first time he/she discovered his/her sexual power. There's genuine sadness in Hedwig's voice as he/she remembers happier days with Tommy. At times, such as when he sings with punk ferocity about Hedwig's "angry inch," the auditorium is bursting with sound. In other, more tender moments, patrons hang on his every word.
McClellan is on stage all 90 minutes, but it's not a one-man show. Tanja Simione plays Yitzak, Hedwig's unhappy second husband and a former drag queen turned backup singer. Yitzak doesn't dance like a punk rocker, but he hurls expletives at Hedwig (who won't let him wear women's wigs anymore) with sufficient rage.
Music director Jason Fair plays keyboards and leads a good band. There's drummer Nelson McCreary, a Howland native; guitarist Rob Virostek, a YSU student from Poland; and J.R. Shaw, whose rainbow-colored mohawk hairdo gave folks something to talk about other than his three-word cast biography ("I play bass").
shaulis@vindy.com