John Cameron Mitchell: The Origin of Love, Playhouse, Canberra Theatre

This is more a concert/cabaret than theatre, but I'm including it anyway because it was awesome. Singing a range of songs from his musical "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" (eight, skipping "Angry Inch", "Hedwig's Lament", "Exquisite Corpse" and the "Wicked Little Town" reprise), plus a cut song and a few other related extras, with a full backing rock band and backing singer (Amber Martin, who performs a few solos), Mitchell surrounds this with stories of how the show got created and some of the after-effects of the show. If Mitchell is now over 50 (compared to the 30 something who first performed Hedwig) his energy has barely dipped - the harder-rocking songs get full-pitch performances while the ballads still cut just as deep into the heart. And while inevitably there's some blurring of the lines between Hedwig and John CAmeron Mitchell, we get a chance to see a stunning performer giving his all in a culturally iconic show. If this is how Mitchell chooses to perform the songs from now on, I can't say I'd complain very much.