Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)

This lauded, mildly diverting New York musical chronicles the life of a fictional, transsexual glitter-rock never-was — but as its cast album reveals, the music just isn't glam enough. On record, the stagy set pieces sound more like White Album-era Beatles, cornball country, and Meat Loaf on speed than actual rock & roll. That said, ersatz glam pile drivers like ''Tear Me Down'' and ''Angry Inch'' were born to be played on the radio, and the way both album and musical embalm rock as an art form of the past is eerily compelling. B

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