It’s a theater plot as old as time — boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy betrays girl. Except this time, the girl is a post-operative transsexual.

The rock musical “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” will return to Des Moines, following a successful performance in August 2002. The production is presented by StageWest Theater Company, an all-volunteer theater company based in Des Moines.

“Once [the audience] gets over the fact that it is a guy in a dress and wig, the story is very real to them,” says Todd Buchacker, “Hedwig” director.

The play focuses on the main character, Hedwig, a man born and raised in East Berlin. After falling in love with a corporal in the U.S. Army, Hedwig wants to go to the United States with the corporal, but knows they can never marry unless he has a sex change. Once a female, Hedwig gets dumped and starts her own band, called Hedwig and the Angry Inch, with a man named Tommy. They work together until Tommy steals the music and becomes famous. Hedwig then follows Tommy on his concert tour to exact her revenge.

“[The story] is based on Plato’s ‘Symposium,’ ” Buchacker says. “It’s about how there used to be three sexes: male, female and androgynous — a combination of the two. Zeus got angry and split them all in half. It’s what we’re looking for — our goal is to find our other half.”

The show’s music is what sets it apart from other musicals, and is similar in style to glam rock and punk music, Buchacker says.

“It compares to Iggy Pop and David Bowie of the ’70s and late ’60s,” Buchacker says.

Although schedule conflicts with the Des Moines Civic Center’s Stoner Theater prevented the performance from returning to its last venue, Lambert says the Vaudeville Mews is an even more appropriate location.

“[Vaudeville Mews is] a perfect place … It has a cabaret bar in a warehouse setting downtown,” Lambert says.

Buchacker says this production of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” will be slightly different from previous performances.

“This will be shorter than the production in the fall because we cut it down to take it to the State Community Theater Festival,” Buchacker says.

Lambert says most people will not notice a difference in the show, even though it was a struggle to cut the show down from an hour and a half to only one hour, but that the story is still intact.

Lambert says after “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” opened at Des Moines’ Stoner Theater last October, the theater had to turn away people wanting to see the show.

“The buzz [the show] created just kept building the audience,” Lambert says.

Even though the premise of the play is rather unusual, Buchacker says everyone can still relate to its central themes.

“It takes a subject matter that can be off-putting at times and makes it accessible,” Buchacker says. “People can come away going, ‘I get it.’ It’s really not about a transgendered guy, it’s about falling in love and finding yourself.”

What: “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”

Where: Vaudeville Mews, 212 4th St., Des Moines

When: 8 p.m. Friday, 7 p.m. Sunday

Cost: $20