Measuring HEDWIG at PT, Reese-style

Caleb Reese

photo by Reg Madison Photography

by Jennifer Haaland

Just for the chance to audition for the title role in Hedwig and the Angry Inch at Phoenix Theatre, Caleb Reese went to extraordinary measures.  Here, he gives Phx Stages a glimpse under the tangled wigs he now wears on stage nightly. With candid humility, both Reese's conversation and performance reveal a central tendency: Give Caleb Reese an Inch and he'll take on a mile.

"Right out of the gate, I started working out incessantly.  I was not the body type that I thought Hedwig should look like," Reese said of his process that began months before he auditioned. "I'm talking two hours a day... barre class, Pilates, weights, hiking, tennis.... I lost 40 pounds in three months."

Hedwig is an East German emigrant who fled to the United States shortly before the Wall fell.  As a transsexual (burdened with a sex-change operation gone wrong), hopeful rock star whose best music was stolen by an ex-lover, Hedwig has countless reasons to be hurt and 'angry.' Those reasons unfold as she and her rock band, The Angry Inch, tell and sing her story from a dive-bar stage at Phoenix Theatre this month.

Around that same pre-audition time, Reese also started working with a dialect coach. So, by the time he was cast as Hedwig, he'd gotten a jumpstart on a couple of his character's  essential exterior elements.  Reese's resume also includes "lead singer in my own rock'n'roll band for nine years," providing additional background character study for him.

"I tried to get some of the foundation set before auditions," said Reese.  Suggesting the real work--inhabiting Hedwig's mind and body--would occupy his every moment until opening night, he still had room for a little humor.  "The heels alone are extremely daunting!"

Turning serious, Reese said, "I'm constantly trying to battle contrasting Hedwig's stage confidence with his [unwigged] insecurities. I have never been this emotionally invested in a role.  It's a juggernaut of a show and I just don't want to drop the ball."

Reese's impassioned drive to do the role justice seems to focus on his belief in the show's potential. He recalls seeing the show in New York through tears. Its themes and topics, he believes, are ones we're all hip-deep in on a daily basis of late.

"Hedwig and the Angry Inch can truly change lives, set people in the audience in a new direction," he said in summation. "It may give some a confidence they haven't had before. Others might not be so quick to judge. Maybe we can all just better allow other people to be themselves."

CLICK HERE for more information on Hedwig and the Angry Inch, which runs through November 12