David Gill, star of the Beautiful Creatures production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, displayed his rather broad shoulders in the preview performance of the show at Fitzgerald's Thursday night and it almost seemed as if he would carry the entire show on them. He was the brightest spot in this incarnation of John Cameron Mitchell's 1998 rock musical that desperately needs more from everyone else involved - and in most cases, it appears that this is simply not possible.

For the purposes of full disclosure, I should mention that I was originally slated to be in the band for this show and pulled out for reasons of time and commitment. I offered my services to the director and producer in an advisory capacity and I dearly wish they'd taken me up on it. Do I know Hedwig better than they do? No, I do not. But there are weaknesses in this show that are so glaringly obvious that I am stunned they have not taken the more drastic measures necessary to correct them. I don't know whether to assume that they are unaware of these cracks or are willfully ignoring them just to get this show off the ground. In either case, my offer still stands.

The band needs work all the way around. Having been privy at rehearsals to the talent on board, I knew that getting them up to speed was going to be a Herculean task. It didn't get there. I figured it would be a struggle even just to learn a few of the songs, but at least attempts were made on the whole set. The drummer, Tiny Flowers, did in fact improve noticeably from the first practice, but he is still not up to the job. No musical will succeed when the timing on nearly every song is so shaky it's like Michael J. Fox after a double espresso. Intros and exits from songs are very unstable and these points should be established more clearly even if it means creating minute gaps in the dialog.

Louis Weyrich gamely attempts to reproduce the score literally and should have taken more latitude in giving the songs his own voice. He has not perfected his playing to the point that one can relax with the song in his hands. He is hampered already by a serious lack of rhythm on the keyboards and having an unsettled drummer doesn't help. Granted, it�s the first performance, but one should be able to play the intro to "Wicked Little Town" without that much trouble. I sat down at mom's about two weeks ago and played it to better effect having never even tried it before on the piano. (That may sound self-flattering, but I leave open an offer to play it for anyone who asks and will be satisfied to let him or her judge for themselves.) Sadly, this means that the loveliest song in the entire score is DOA. The same goes for "Wig in a Box," the defining song of this show. This beautiful melody was strangled, suffocated and left for dead right there on stage. Very sad indeed.

Jenny Schlein has a fantastic look for this show and presents herself confidently in the numbers where... well, the numbers where she actually knows what she's doing. Her posture is exactly indicative of her level of confidence. She's out there front and center rockin on "Tear Me Down" and "Angry Inch," but she recedes to the wings especially during "Wig in a Box". Too many times in this show, she drops out completely and the song is left with no foundation whatsoever. As a bassist in my previous life, I know enough to at least play the foundation if you can't add any flourish, but it appears that she just did not learn entire parts of songs. This really hurt the softer numbers. (Please let me walk her through "Wig in a Box"... PLEASE!)

The guitarist, Eric Allen, seems to have followed Louis' lead in trying to play exactly as the score dictates. If he had succeeded, I'd have applauded him generously. There weren't any definable screw-ups on his part, but his guitar fell sharply out of tune by the end of "Origin of Love" and that made for yet another weak outro. He did handle the harder parts well and looks like the kinda guy who's more comfortable with power chords than delicate arpeggios.

The only time I enjoyed the music was during "Sugar Daddy" and "Angry Inch" - the two simplest songs. I think what hurts this show most is the inherent proportion of ability to success: the more difficult, the more delicate, the more complicated the song, the worse it sounded.

The venue for this show is adequate for the purpose of the atmospheric dimension and it appears that Fitz's has made some accommodations to stage it. It looks as though this set could double for a staging of Pink Floyd's The Wall, replete with lazy-boy chair and a half-wall in front of the stage that could have been built up to the ceiling with bricks.

Dave's costume and wigs were well put together and his make-up was good, but somewhat washed out by the yellowish lighting. Still, kudos to Mina Devantier and Maddy Schafer respectively.

The lighting for this show was quite simply boring. No thought seems to have been put into creating dynamic changes in mood from one moment to the next and so the show has a somewhat flat sensibility. There are certainly opportunities to focus the audience's attention at critical points in the show, but no effort appears to have been made to do so. How about a narrow spot and no stage lights at all for "Wicked Little Town" or "Exquisite Corpse"? How about giving Dave some light during "Wicked Little Town Reprise"? He was on stage, and one senses it was important for him to be there, so then let us see him. I expect the spotlight direction and timing will improve after this first show.

The part of Tommy Gnosis was restricted to a handful of pre-recorded TV shots, all of which were filmed very well and with some pizzazz. In fact, those shots are probably the most professional part of the entire show. Clearly the camera was in the hands of an old pro. Jef Rouner acquits himself capably in a role that asks only minutes of him. As with the spotlight handling, I expect Dave's timing turning the TV off and on to improve as the shows go on.

Lynda Self as Yitzhak impressed me with her ability to seem very guy-like before the show began, trudging around as she rearranged the stage set-up. Sadly, it fell apart in the show itself. She lapsed back into feminine mode too quickly and may not be able to overcome her physicality - which I've admittedly admired over the years. In most comic scenes with Hedwig, she tends to be the Harvey Korman of the two. She'll need to work on bringing some seriousness to the part. There are also a number of songs that are simply out of her range. She handled a couple of them well, but it is essential that she not be allowed to sing anything a cappella. When she sticks to backing vocals on stuff within her capacity, her voice is sweet and cooing.

And then we come to Dave. He nearly pulls it off, overcoming the tremendous obstacles in music performance and stage production. He has the voice, but had to struggle to keep certain songs on track due to the band's instability - "Exquisite Corpse" and "Wicked Little Town" especially. He has splashed a few current event and local references, but I fear that actually puts the show in too mundane a context. Just my opinion, but the show should not come quite so close to reality given its premise. He never struggled with a line but he seemed a little too prancy during the first number (perhaps nervousness). The other physical problem with the show is that the humor - especially between Yitzhak and Hedwig - is telegraphed to the audience with such obviousness that it's like there are big arrows on stage saying, "LAUGH HERE." Dave was much better at delivering offhanded comic lines when he had entire control of the tempo.

Anyone who has seen Dave do Reverend Jim from Taxi, or Prince, or Mick Jagger knows that he is an accomplished mimic. This both helps and hurts him in the show. He nails the accent and gets the characterization right for Hedwig, and he does Hedwig's mother with the proper bemused detachment. But his impersonations of Luther Robinson and Tommy Gnosis are so deftly delivered that you start to understand his performance of Hedwig as merely one mask of many. He brings the other characters to life from beyond Hedwig's perspective. He should be doing Hedwig doing Tommy, not Dave Gill doing Tommy. It's like watching Sybil as performed by Robin Williams.

I realize that I watched the first public performance of this show and that improvements are likely as the show goes on. Unfortunately, the things that need the most improvement are the things of which I'm not sure the current crew is capable. The band may get a little tighter, but they will not appreciably improve as musicians and thus the show will only go so far. Damn shame, as that is one hell of a score.

Tickets are $20 Friday and Saturdays, $16 Sundays. Personally, I think that's steep for a show of this limited caliber. I might pay $10 to see Dave Gill perform again, but I'd save the other $10 for a copy of the cast album, which I have been listening to every day at work for the last two months.