Roxy's ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch is for "anyone who’s ever felt left out in life’

About two months before his opening night in the musical “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” at Roxy’s Downtown, Max Wilson lay on an operating table.

The 24-year-old Wichita native first noticed what turned out to be a massive disc herniation in his back on New Year’s Day, and underwent surgery in mid-April.

Wilson said it’s not bothering him in his daily life, nor when he plays Hedwig Robinson, a rock singer and victim of a botched sex-change surgery in John Cameron Mitchell’s musical, which opened June 14.

“I feel like everyone else is more stressed out about it than I am,” Wilson said. “I never feel limited, I never feel in pain. Everyone else is worried.”

Based on a true story – of playwright Mitchell’s childhood babysitter who moonlighted as a prostitute near the U.S. Army base in Junction City – “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” debuted off-Broadway to a cult following in 1998, eventually winning Obie and Outer Critics Circle awards for best musical.

It was revived on Broadway in 2014, with Neil Patrick Harris winning a Tony Award for best actor. The Crown Uptown gave the show its Wichita debut in 2016.

Rick Bumgardner, newly named as producing artistic director at Roxy’s and director of “Hedwig,” said one line in the script mentions Wichita.

Besides a four-piece, onstage band, “Hedwig” is essentially a two-character show. The other character is also a gender-bender: Molly Tully plays Yitzhak, Hedwig’s assistant, backup singer and husband – a Jewish drag queen.

A Wichita native, Tully said she wasn’t familiar with the show until Harris’ version on Broadway.

“I’m very passionate about the music in it. I love the edginess and the story behind it,” she said. “The music is so fun and yet so passionate and moving and so dynamic. And to play a man in the midst of all that is such an acting challenge.”

Tully had already played a man once, in “One Man, Two Guvnors” at Crown Uptown. “I love it. I think it’s fun,” she said. “It’s a very rare opportunity to study how I carry myself – my shoulders, or how I walk across the stage. It’s different. I study all the men in my life and how they carry themselves.”

Wilson, who graduated with a BFA from Wichita State in late 2016, has dressed up as a woman, entirely for laughs, at Mosley Street Melodrama, where he’s a regular.

“She’s not quite a woman and she’s not quite a drag queen. But she’s still a part of that community of folks,” Wilson said. “This is my first time playing an honest, true, emotionally dynamic character, and I wouldn’t necessarily … I hate the stigma around being ‘a boy in a dress,’ because it’s so much more than that.”

Music director Andy Bowers leads an on-stage, four-piece band – also called the Angry Inch – and said the musicians are part of the show rather than just accompaniment.

“When someone hands you a blank check and tells you to go nuts on stage, you basically go nuts on stage,” Bowers said. “It’s not just rock music, which some people perceive as very simple and energy-driven. We’ve made alterations to that to tailor to Max and Molly’s personalities. We’re not doing what’s been done in the past several years.”

Bumgardner said “Hedwig” speaks to anyone who’s ever felt left out in life.

“The show is really about misfits, and anyone who has ever felt uncomfortable in their own skin. All of us are looking for love and acceptance,” he said. “We’re going to tell you to celebrate who you are just as who you are.”

Audiences also will see a transformation in Hedwig during the show.

“If you register as a human with emotions on any level at any point in time in life, you’ll get something out of that show that will enrich you in some way,” Wilson said. “Once you understand where she’s coming from and why she’s making the decisions she’s doing, recognizing that she may be standoffish and aggressive, but that’s a wall that she’s put up to protect herself and keep others out.”

“You finally get to see that this person, by exposing herself and letting her walls down, is a different person,” Bumgardner added. “And we like her.”

‘HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH’

When: 8 p.m. June 15-16, 21 and 23, 28 and 30; 6 p.m. June 17 and 24; 10 p.m. June 22; 11:55 p.m. June 29; 2 p.m. July 1

Where: Roxy’s Downtown, 412 ½ E. Douglas

Tickets: $20-$30, from Roxy’s box office, phone 316-265-4400

This story was originally published June 18, 2018 at 10:30 AM with the headline "Roxy's ‘Hedwig and the Angry Inch is for "anyone who’s ever felt left out in life’."