Hugh Sheridan takes on Hedwig in raunchy Sydney Festival outing
After putting an end to rumours about his sexuality, actor Hugh Sheridan is about to step into the toughest role of his career and he’s never been more ready.
Entertainment
Don't miss out on the headlines from Entertainment. Followed categories will be added to My News.
As Hugh Sheridan prepares to step into a raunchy transgender stage role for Sydney Festival, the handsome Sydney star is relieved that his biggest secret is already out.
Last month in the Sunday Telegraph, Sheridan wrote about his relationships with both men and women and detailed the years of agony at keeping his authentic self under lock and key.
Now Sheridan feels free, and is confidently moving into the title role of the post-punk rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a headline show of artistic director Wesley Enoch’s last Sydney Festival (January 6 to 26).
“Hedwig is so open and so raw, I wouldn’t have felt that I was doing the best job that I could if I hadn’t been open and raw myself,” Sheridan said yesterday when the Sydney Festival program was announced.
“I want to go into it being as open and raw and naked on the stage as I can be, metaphorically speaking.”
Hedwig and the Angry Inch, essentially a one-man show, traces the journey of a young East Berlin man who has a sex change as part of a plan to escape to the capitalist west. But the operation is botched, and Hedwig’s angry inch refers to his anatomical stump created by the surgeon’s inept knife.
The show is tragic and funny, with gender and sexuality at its core. But for Sheridan, the story is really about accepting there’s a lot more to being human than most people probably realise.
“I love the idea of opening myself up to that, and trying to get inside that mindset and that body and that heart,” the actor said.
“Hedwig’s a tough role for anyone, no matter what their label is or their sexuality or gender. It requires you to draw on a level of honesty that is very uncomfortable for a lot of people, and has been for me for a long time.”
Now, he’s ready.
Wesley Enoch said Hedwig and the Angry Inch will run at Enmore Theatre from December 31 to January 24. Because of COVID, Sydney Festival will be all about local talent.
An outdoor stage called the Headland will be erected at Barangaroo where $25 a ticket will buy a picnic-style (socially distanced) place on the grass for all kinds of performances from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Bangarra Dance Theatre to Katie Noonan and Christine Anu.
Sydney Town Hall will become an indoor tennis court for a show about tennis champion Evonne Goolagong.
The SSO will premiere a new work in which climate change data is harnessed to reimagine Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. The orchestra will also return to Parramatta Park for Sydney Symphony Under the Stars.
Torres Strait artist Alick Tipote’s work will be showcased at the Australian National Maritime Museum.
The acclaimed Australian Brandenburg Orchestra will perform in the crypt of St Marys Cathedral in the city.
In all there will be 140 activities, but no printed program because of COVID-driven uncertainties.
“Some things will change at the last minute because of the world we live in,” Enoch said.
He encouraged arts lovers to explore the festival online at sydneyfestival.org.au