Immersive HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH Coming to Asheville

North Carolina's newest theatre company, THE SYNTHESIS EXPERIMENT, launches its inaugural season with a strictly limited engagement of the Broadway smash HEWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH.

This thrilling and innovative new production of the Tony Award-winning rock odyssey by John Cameron Mitchell (book) and Stephen Trask (music and lyrics) comes to Asheville's Toy Boat Community Art Space (101 Fairview Road) for one week only, beginning October 17.

Directed by Robert Malbrough, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH stars Jonathan Lewis as Hedwig and Anna Lyles as Yitzhak. The live band, with Music Direction by Cody Lovell, will include Dan Zeitlen, Danni Iosello, and an eclectic mix of musicians from Asheville and the surrounding area.

Internationally ignored song-stylist Hedwig Robinson takes over the Toy Boat Community Art Space for six performances only! Hedwig and her band The Angry Inch will transport you from Communist East Berlin to Junction City Kansas with a wild and provocative tale of sex, love, and rock and roll. Step into Hedwig's world of glitter, puppetry, and face-melting harmonies to discover the truth about her past (with a certain rock icon) and maybe even the truth about yourself.

HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH premiered Off-Broadway in 1998, running for nearly 900 performances and winning both the Obie Award and the Drama Desk Award for Best Off-Broadway Musical. Rolling Stone proclaimed it "the best rock musical ever!" In 2014, HEDWIG landed on Broadway, starring Neil Patrick Harris and Lena Hall, winning four Tony Awards, including Best Revival of the Musical.

THE SYNTHESIS EXPERIMENT is a New Theatre Company in Asheville, co-founded by Jonathan Lewis and Anna Lyles. Dedicated to the creation of innovative and provocative works of theatre, SYNTHESIS believes that vital and engaging theatre cannot be created without an inherent sense of risk or failure. SYNTHESIS is determined to deliver dynamic, engrossing, and unceasingly daring new productions to the Asheville community, each in their own unusual and unexpected location. Each project, whether a production of an exciting and well-known musical or a new piece of performance art from fascinating new artists, will overflow with thrilling imagery, dynamic staging, and the undeniable pulse of life that is so often missing in the commercial theatre.

Jonathan Lewis and ANNA LYLES founded The Synthesis Experiment to remedy the numerous maladies they've witnessed taking hold of commercial theatre. After spending several years participating in theatrical works in locations ranging from South Carolina to New York City, they've taken their disillusionment and turned it into action, cultivating a dynamic group of multi-disciplinary artists to create immersive, exciting, and engaging theatre.

ROBERT MALBROUGH directed world-premiere productions of The Unexamined Life, Don't Talk to Strangers, and A Shield No Longer. Other credits include a startling deconstruction of Shakespeare's harrowing Titus Andronicus, The Lover by Nobel Prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter, and Abandon All Hope by Shel Silverstein. He is currently developing Dangerous Goods, a silent neo-noir movement piece, and he recently served as assistant director on the world premiere of Academy Award-winning author James Lecesne's play The Mother of Invention Off-Broadway at Abingdon Theatre Company.

CODY LOVELL is a multi-instrumentalist and experimental composer who spent several years living abroad in Europe and Asia. Previous productions include the Tony and Grammy Award-winning rock extravaganza American Idiot, Peter and the Star Catcher, Rock of Ages, Grey Gardens, and The Rocky Horror Show. He is currently developing a new immersive musical for Synthesis based on the Charles Manson murders.

HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH runs October 17-21: Tuesday-Friday at 8:00PM; Saturday at 7:00PM and Midnight, at Toy Boat Community Art Space (101 Fairview Road, Asheville, NC). Tickets are $20 General Admission, $15 Under 30. For tickets, visit synthesisexperiment.brownpapertickets.com.

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