Meet Hedwig (John Cameron Mitchell) working with her band in a local restaurant near the salad bar as she exclaims that shes the internationally ignored rock singer who has traveled from Communist Berlin. Managed by the singular person who applauds during their musical sets, Phyllis Stein (Andrea Martin) is the band manager that keeps the family together.

As we travel with the band we travel into Hedwigs own memories as he share the stories of how he was a young boy named Hansel, raised by a single mother in Germany, then several years later is attracted to an American GI Sergeant who agrees to marry Hansel and take him to America if he follows through with a sex change operation in order to be come a complete woman.

When the operation fails leaving Hedwig with and angry inch, his GI husband abandons him in Kansas and Hedwig is left to fend for himself by doing a series of side gigs. When she meets young Tommy Gnosis (Michael Pitt) the two bond until Tommy steals Hedwigs songs and become a huge rock star leaving Hedwig pathetically playing in the shadows. As Hedwig performs we learn how his ultimate desire is to become a whole person by meeting his other half, someone he can bond with in every way.

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