Hedwig and the Hysterical Crowd

Begin flashback...

So, I'm in HyeHwa, and after some nifty subway navigation and a quick triangle gimbap-run at GS25 to combat hangover hunger and to get some lightly peach-flavoured DHB (drenches body and heart) to prevent hangover headache and nausea, we are paying 33,000 won to listen to Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the musical, sung in Korean.

Not the least of my worries is running past (much less into) someone who knows me, since, defending my suspect heterosexuality will become nigh impossible after being seen at this show. I would defy anyone to say that the cross-dressing and emasculation themes of Hedwig are COMPLETELY gay, but certainly they smack of gayosity, and there can be no doubt that this show is a hit with drag queens and poufs, neither of which I am or have ever been, not that there is anything wrong with it.

Actually I'm here mostly because the music rocks, and I know Ange would want to hear about it (damn me for not bringing the camera - but actually if you can picture Hedwig makeup on an Asian face, and a lot of funny ajumma faces, you've pretty much got it).

Review: The music did rock, and it did me a ton of soul-soothing good to actually hear an electric guitar in person after...yeah, a while.
The whole show is basically in Korean, and apart from some integral scenes, such as the one where Tommy Gnosis points to Hedwig's crotch and asks "Igeh Moya?" the message was not always clear, nor was it always in line with the movie. Luckily I had an able interpreter in Becca (introduced later) who not only could translate all the German lines, but knew the story back and forth.

The most entertaining part of the evening though, was the crowd. I don't know, exactly, at least not yet, but I'm working on some theories as to what makes this show so popular with Korean women, but the place was jam-packed with them. HOT ONES (not gay over here, hello). And, youngish ones too. I spotted a few men, but there seemed to be only one other foreigner in the whole joint, a very slim man who fit the 'profile'. We both seemed to be getting a lot of attention, but I would like to think it was because we were both devastatingly handsome curiosities in this sea of frenzied Hedwig worshippers. The actor who plays Hedwig (Song Yong-jin?) is not, as I initially, suspected, proof of the existence of gays in Korea, he is actually a bold (would have to be fearless to show his face unpainted) and energetic actor. He churned the crowd into a frothing mass (I think I may be repeating myself, but I'll keep this motif for Korea's population in general) the likes that I haven't seen anywhere but in Beatles footage, well, minus the shrieking. I mean, there was cheering and yelling, but not the ear-splitting shrieking, thank God. Anyway, it was cool to see, and fun, and worth the money, and the one female actor had a great voice and was EXTREMELY HOT. (Lee Young-mi?)
(End flashback...)

I met Bruce's friend Kyrt last night. He is another tall man with a gorgeous (and endlessly charming) Korean wife. It's really enough to make me shake my head in despair. Kyrt is different from soccer-coach-Sarge though, in that he seems thoughtful, rather than conniving, and although ambitious, he has a laid-back and friendly demeanour. Kyrt's wife, Jade, (do I tell her it's a stripper's English name?) has a friend, call her Becky, although she would dislike that.

Becky is fluent in German, self-taught over only a few years of serious study. She reads good books. She is a thinker. She was not particularly glib or raucous though, even with the dispatching of a bottle of Bailey's consumed in the service of my first recorded complete cup of coffee, several tequila shots, and a few gin and tonics. She was also gentle, patient, erudite and whimsically suffered the company of fools like me.

Still, I was in her kitchen eating French toast with hard-won 'cake syrup' discovered after a few kilometres of shop-scouring at the end of a boozy evening. It's not what you think, though, gentle reader, for although I am not innocent of such scallywaggery, we had actually stayed out until 7 am singing at the noraebang. The evening was in fact, notable for this and a conversation on the proper administration of a hagwon business, with Bruce's increasingly insufferable braggadocio regarding his important position with the Choleric Charity, his salary and the inversely small cost of living in Indonesia thrown in for good measure. Let's hope he saves something this time. ( - actually don't worry so much about what he does, just shut up and follow your own advice.)

Becky was pleasant company, but this will be a meeting of minds only, for various reasons, not the least of which is that my stay in Korea is approaching it's terminus, and a return is uncertain at best. She invited me to come to Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and actually since this is the most interesting part of my post, maybe I'll write this as a flashback.