Those who frequent the theaters know it: Benoit McGinnis is an actor capable of setting the stage ablaze by his mere presence. He proves it once again by donning fishnet stockings and high heels to offer a boosted and downright stunning performance in the Quebec adaptation of the American musical Hedwig and the raging thumb.
Ever since attending a performance of the show on Broadway in 2014, the actor had dreamed of playing Hedwig, a tongue-in-cheek East German punk rock singer. He kept the project at arm’s length, including during the long pandemic, in the company of his sidekick René Richard Cyr who signs the staging and the translation.
On Thursday premiere night at Studio TD, Benoit McGinnis beamed with happiness as he walked the boards under Hedwig’s peroxide wig. Accompanied by four (excellent) musicians and by the very talented Elisabeth Gauthier Pelletier who plays the role of her husband Yitzhak, the actor alternates songs (in French) and monologues, recounting parts of his character’s life or swaying his hips with a energy and self-assurance that command admiration.
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PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Powerful voice, athletic performance: Benoit McGinnis sets the stage on fire with his interpretation of Hedwig.
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PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
Elisabeth Gauthier Pelletier (on the right) is very solid in the role of Yitzhak.
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PHOTO JOSIE DESMARAIS, THE PRESS
The show Hedwig and the raging thumb is carried by four renowned musicians, including Andre Papanicolaou as musical director.
1/3
A show that feels good
The very athletic performance of Benoit McGinnis and the very successful rock-which-moves atmosphere almost manage to make us forget the slightly dusty side of the text, written in the late 1990s by John Cameron Mitchell. At the time, salacious drag queen-style humor might still shock (or surprise), but in 2023, Quebec has heard more.
So much so that we feared the worst when, at the start of the show, Hedwig threads the jokes in dubious taste, each punctuated with a tchik-a-boom battery felt good.
Luckily, emotion eventually wins out over superficiality as the play progresses. Under the sequins, you can hear a beating heart.
The story of the singer with an indefinite gender also remains a bit convoluted. Born a man in East Berlin, Hedwig undergoes sex reassignment surgery that goes wrong and leaves her with a piece of flesh between her legs that she will nickname her raging thumb.
All her life, she threads the disappointments in love, in particular with a rock star who will strip her of all her songs. And her husband Yitzhak who follows her like a dog in search of a caress? It serves him as punch bag, perfect target to receive the overflow of gall from the drifting singer. True love that fails to blossom, eclipsed by the pains of the past. The story has been told many times…
Nevertheless, under his familiar airs, Hedwig and the raging thumb remains a show that is good for the soul and that passes in a snap of the fingers. Because despite the passing of the years and the many battles waged for a greater openness to difference, the game is not won. Because loving ourselves as we are remains a challenge for everyone. And because rock music, when performed this well, raises the temperature by a few degrees.
Hedwig and the raging thumb
Text by John Cameron Mitchell, lyrics and music by Stephen Trask. Directed and translated by René Richard Cyr. With Benoit McGinnis, Elisabeth Gauthier Pelletier, Andre Papanicolau, Amélie Mandeville, Marc Chartrain and Guillaume Lecompte
At Studio TD until February 4, then on tour in Quebec