WICKER PARK — Newly annoying neighborhood?
That's Wicker Park in Chicago, according to Hedwig of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.
The story features a character named Hedwig Robinson, a transgender punk rocker from East Berlin. In the play, she describes a visit to a "newly annoying neighborhood."
A current touring company changes the neighborhood to match the city it is performing in. Hedwig played here in March at the Oriental Theater, a presentation Chris Jones of the Tribune described as "quite brilliantly written."
The New York Times recently rounded up Hedwig's ever evolving "newly annoying" neighborhoods from across the country, including Chicago.
“It all went down in the newly annoying Wicker Park," Hedwig says. "I had just been barred from entering the gender-neutral bathroom at Violet Hour (and it took me 45 minutes just to find the doorknob!) when a limo pulled up.”
The Times described why it worked:
"Wicker Park is a West Side neighborhood awash in bicycles and blunt-cut hairstyles. Violet Hour is a cocktail bar that serves 'pre-Prohibition-style libations.' A rotation of artists design the bar’s speakeasy entrance, often making it difficult to locate the door."
