A week before re-inhabiting the supremely seething, utterly lonely persona of one of off-Broadway's most famous fictional victims of a botched sex-change operation, musician/baker-of-cheesecakes/roller skater/actor Otto quietly waited for his cue.

He'd slipped on the towering, knee-high black platform boots of the rock 'n' roll musical's titular heroine. In a snug white wifebeater, camouflage cargo shorts and black headband, Otto wasn't sporting his character's flexibly fab velvet-goldmine-on-hallucinogenics wardrobe or small-animal-scaring Farrah-tressed wig just yet. But he still cut a decent clone of her elegantly tall, muscularly svelte figure while standing behind a mike stand in the semi-darkness of rehearsal space Galaxy Nightclub.

The odor of long-ago stubbed-out clove cigarettes filled the room. A porn video played on TV screens behind the club's bar. Then an announcer spoke.

"And now, Honolulu, whether you like it or not ... Hedwig!"

Applause from the small tech crew working Otto's production of co-creator and original Hedwig John Cameron Mitchell's Obie Award-winning "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" was drowned out by the two-pronged electric guitar attack of Honolulu punk rockers The 86 List as Hedwig's backing band The Angry Inch.

"Don't you know me, Honolulu?" purred Otto. "I'm the new Berlin Wall! Try to tear ME down!"

Together, they tore hungrily into blast-of-glitter-rock-era David Bowie by way of New York Dolls opening number "Tear Me Down," followed with the warmed-over druid-rock melancholia of "The Origin of Love," and finished with the country-rockabilly stomp of "Sugar Daddy" and ticked-off punk of "Angry Inch."

Otto sashayed and prowled a cramped corner space of Galaxy, spitting lyrics into a mike seemingly clutched for dear life, his vocals and the band's playing tightening with each tune.

Better believe brother's gonna rip the Doris Duke Theatre stage tonight and another seven hot August nights with "Hedwig."

"I actually said that I would never do this again," said singularly-named Otto, outside Galaxy. "There's (other) people that go on. But it's me singing and talking for two hours.

"It's mind-boggling to remember all of the dialog (and) all of the lyrics to the songs."

Indeed, kids.

Over an 11-song set of rock anthems, ballads and off-color between-song monologues presented as a series of dive-bar performances with The Angry Inch, "Hedwig" features one Hedwig Schmidt dramatically recounting her life in all its tragic detail. Hedwig's childhood as Hansel, a sexually abused boy growing up in 1960s East Berlin. A teenage marriage to an American GI that led to the Hedwig moniker, failed surgery and said failed surgery's resulting inch-long piece of enraged leftover flesh. And finally, Hedwig's doomed love for a teenage musician who steals her songs, dumps her for rock stardom and leaves her working the dive-bar circuit.

Otto didn't want the demanding task of playing the diva the last time he staged "Hedwig" as a May 2002 production that played the Doris Duke and now-defunct clubs Wave Waikiki and Pink Cadillac. He took over the role only after the actor originally cast as Hedwig stopped showing up for rehearsals. But he eked out a performance that won the production a well-received run. Members of goth hard-core punk band AFI — in town for a concert — even dropped by one night.

Asked when he would resurrect Hedwig more times in the last five years than he cared to recount, Otto decided to shut people up for good and do it again — this time, fully investing himself in the role. Since February, he has immersed himself in character research, soundtrack rehearsals with The 86 List, and intense cardio workouts to obtain the physical stamina and physique necessary to play Hedwig in all her divine madness.

The larger production Otto has designed for this go-round will feature more Hedwig costumes, more lighting and special effects, a bigger Angry Inch (members of The Hell Caminos, S1 Atomic and The Ex-Superheroes round out The 86 List's sound) and, brace yourself, two new wigs.

"The most enjoyable part of the whole thing (is) singing the songs from the show," said Otto, about the soundtrack that originally inspired him to stage "Hedwig" five years ago.

That love notwithstanding, Otto said he still doesn't really identify with much of Hedwig's struggles. But a few life experiences since he last visited Hedwig have given him a better understanding of the character.

"I'm five more years lonelier than I was then," said Otto, solemnly. "('Hedwig' has) that bottom line about finding your other half. And I still haven't found that. ... I'm lonely. And bottom line, that's what this character is."

Reach Derek Paiva at dpaiva@honoluluadvertiser.com.