Hedwig and the Angry Inch - Original Cast

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the fictional glam-rock band at the center of the 1998 off-Broadway musical of the same name, created by John Cameron Mitchell (book) and Stephen Trask (music and lyrics). The Original Cast recordings capture the show's songs as performed in its earliest theatrical run, before the musical was later adapted into an acclaimed 2001 film and revived on Broadway in 2014.

The story follows Hedwig, a genderqueer East German rock singer whose botched sex-reassignment surgery leaves her with the titular 'angry inch,' as she tours dive bars recounting her life story and her fraught relationship with a former lover and protege, Tommy Gnosis. Musically, the score draws heavily on glam rock icons like David Bowie and Iggy Pop, alongside the raw energy of punk acts such as Lou Reed, filtered through the drag-punk club scene where the show was workshopped.

Songs like «The Origin Of Love», «Wicked Little Town», «Midnight Radio» and «Angry Inch» blend theatrical storytelling with genuine rock songcraft, making the cast recording function both as a musical-theater document and a listenable glam/rock album in its own right. The work is celebrated for its unusually candid treatment of gender identity and love, delivered through a mix of confessional monologue and full-throttle rock performance.