Christopher Johnson, left, plays transgendered rocker Hedwig and Danielle Dryer is Yitzhak in Etcetera's production of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" at Live Theatre Workshop.

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Every once in a while, if you're lucky, a play will take you by surprise and sweep you away.

Etcetera's current offering of "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" does that. The production of Live Theatre Workshop's late-night arm opened last weekend.

The story of a transgendered rocker searching to fill the hollow in his soul was an underground hit movie.

But it started as a play. And its raw power is best experienced live.

At least that's true with this production, directed with abandon by Shana Nunez and starring Christopher Johnson as Hedwig and Danielle Dryer as Yitzhak, Hedwig's partner in music and life.

Johnson illuminates every oddity, sorrow, thought of Hedwig, the victim of a botched sex-change operation — the "angry inch" in the title.

This is, on the surface, the story of Hedwig and the boy he considers his other half, Tommy. The two were once friends who furiously wrote songs together. Hedwig gave Tommy his stage name, Tommy Gnosis.

But Tommy ran off with Hedwig's songs, made it big and never looked back to acknowledge the person who gave him the courage and the words to sing.

Hedwig shadows Tommy's concerts around the world. She plays the dumps; Tommy plays the arenas.

The play is full of loud, glorious rock music that not only propels the story, it exposes the emotions, the vulnerabilities and the passions that drive Hedwig.

Hedwig is angry, hurt, conflicted, passionate, a fabulous mess, and Johnson owns each of those with convincing power.

"Hedwig" is not just about a search for self, the need to look inside ourselves to find our whole. It's about how wretched love can be, and how all-consuming the pain becomes. It's about who we are to others and to ourselves. It's about the fear that can shape our lives and sometimes consume it.

And it's especially about art and the essential role it plays in searching for purpose, for meaning, understanding in all that life throws us.

John Cameron Mitchell wrote the book, and Stephen Trask the songs. And those songs are sweet, vengeful, searching, rocked with so much power. Johnson's delivery of them is mesmerizing. He isn't a great singer, but he steps inside those songs, possesses them, infuses them with such raw energy and passion that you want more.

Dryer, whose character is belittled and mistreated by Hedwig but eventually finds his own strength, has a face that is so open and telling that you can't help but feel deeply for this most maligned person. Dryer also has electrifying eyes, and she doesn't try to mask what they say.

The band — a central character in a story that takes place in a low-rent nightclub — is loud and raucous and luscious.

"Hedwig" has its followers, and many of them have found their way to Live Theatre. Which means tickets to these late-night shows might be hard to come by.

But if you can handle loud music, a flood of four-letter words and a play that'll break your heart while it exhilarates you, call now to get those tickets.

You might be surprised.