PASSING STRANGE Reviews

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 5:19pm

AM New York is a Pan (1 out of 4 Stars):

How can we best describe "Passing Strange"? Try thinking of your favorite musical. Now imagine what it would be like if its composer insisted on not just sitting center-stage, but narrating the plot and even telling you why it's a good show. Doesn't that sound condescending?

That, essentially, is "Passing Strange," the stylistically savvy but structurally unsound new musical that has limped its way to Broadway following a short run at the Public Theater.

http://www.amny.com/entertainment/stage/am-passing0229,0,496927.story

Updated On: 2/28/08 at 05:19 PM

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 5:23pm

Newsday is a Rave:

Let's not get too distracted figuring out how to categorize "Passing Strange," the stranger-in-a-strange-land original passing for a Broadway musical at the Belasco Theatre.

What's important is that the thing - part indie-rock concert, part boho-art project, part coming-of-age black-identity crisis, part hipster travelogue - is all smart and all enjoyable and all very good for the theater.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/stage/ny-etpass5594175feb29,0,28927.story

[blaxx]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 5:24pm

Ha ha, raves and pans - sounds like what people think about it here :P

Updated On: 2/28/08 at 05:24 PM

[frogs_fan85]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 5:30pm

From the AMNY review: "His altar ego, played by Daniel Breaker,"

So Daniel Breaker plays Stew as a priest?

[LimelightMike]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 5:32pm

I can't wait to read more reviews as they come in.
Break legs, PASSING STRANGE - We love ya, baby!

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 5:45pm

Anyone actually figure Matt Windham would like it? This ain't his kind of show.
Bet'cha he'll fall all over himself over Gypsy, though. (And NO, that's not me dissing Patti LuPone again.) Updated On: 2/28/08 at 05:45 PM

[CapnHook]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 5:46pm

Brantley, I'm waiting...

Updated On: 2/28/08 at 05:46 PM

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 5:47pm

This show (along with In the Heights) is Isherwood's, actually. He reviewed them Off-Broadway, so he gets to do it again. (Same reason why he reviewed Osage County).

BB will get all the other shows this season.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 5:47pm

Brantley probably won't be reviewing this one, Hook. Isherwood did the Off-Broadway review.

[jaystarr]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 5:53pm

Isherwood would give it a good review like the one he did for Public Theater run.

J*

[blaxx]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 6:52pm

Talkin' Broadway is a rave.

http://www.talkinbroadway.com/world/

Passing Strange is so fresh and so unique, in fact, it's possible its author isn't aware how revolutionary it is on the Broadway landscape; Stew has admitted in interviews to a lack of familiarity with musicals. The results show that this only means he didn't know which rules he broke and which he wrote while creating a work that's half concert, half confessional, and all electrifying theatre.

Updated On: 2/28/08 at 06:52 PM

[WaltSummersPI]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 6:59pm

Two huge raves and counting!!!

[mominator]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 7:04pm

I am seeing this next Friday!! Can't wait!

[kidmanboy]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 7:09pm

The AMNY review is an embarrassment. Not only does he say a "rock" when i believe he means "rock concert"....he also apparently thinks that writer/actor Kevin Smith designed the lights...And people listen to this man's opinions?
Updated On: 2/28/08 at 07:09 PM

[WhizzerMarvin]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 7:12pm

Keep the raves coming!!!

[verynewyorkcurious]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 7:15pm

I thought reviews came out after the opening night performance. Can someone clarify that for me

[adamgreer]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 7:15pm

Not that Matthew Murray's review means a thing, but I am REALLY shocked he liked it. I was expecting a pan from him, for sure.

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 7:27pm

Variety is a Rave:

From "Hair" to "Rent" to "Spring Awakening," composers have sought to reinvigorate musical theater by harnessing the energy and raw expressiveness of rock. But "Passing Strange," the defiantly unclassifiable musical by Los Angeles singer-songwriter Stew, is something else altogether -- a magical mystery tour that fuses aspects of concert, concept album, cabaret and revivalist meeting. Significantly finessed since last year's Public Theater run, this idiosyncratic odyssey toward self-knowledge explores universal questions of identity with the specificity and wry insight of autobiographical experience. It's boldly atypical Broadway fare that pulses with a new kind of vitality.

http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117936346.html?categoryid=33&cs=1

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 7:28pm

A rave from the AP:

"The production, on view at Broadway's Belasco Theatre, works on several levels. It taps into the energy of rock, linking its high-voltage enthusiasm to a parade of entertaining, if sometimes overlong situations and characters that are eminently theatrical.

Stew makes an unlikely leading man. Bald, full-figured and wearing weird black-rimmed specs, the man looks more like a bouncer at a less-than-respectable downtown club. He serves as the show's lead singer and narrator, an unofficial master of ceremonies for this tale of a young black adventurer, referred to only as "Youth" and played with a sweet-tempered exuberance by Daniel Breaker.

"Passing Strange" isn't saying anything revolutionary, and, in the end, our hero realizes there is more to life than art. But the way he learns his lessons could not have been told in a more entertaining manner.

The show itself has been on its own journey, too — from the Sundance Institute and Berkeley Repertory Theatre to the off-Broadway's Public Theater last season. Broadway is a surprisingly comfortable fit for "Passing Strange," a testament to the universality of its appeal and the genial personality of its rockin' ringmaster."

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/29/arts/Theater-Passing-Strange.php

[BustopherPhantom]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 7:36pm

Word of Mouth is Very Positive:

http://www.broadway.com/gen/General.aspx?ci=561554

[blaxx]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 7:44pm

Whoa, buh bye Xanadu as the best reviewed new musical of the season...wow.

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 8:01pm

The press nights are NOT opening night, but usually a few days ahead. For PS, it was last Sat. night, Sun. Mat., and Wed. night.

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 8:23pm

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=87767899

[Yankeefan007]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 8:26pm

That's a feature, not a review.

[jaystarr]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 8:30pm

I am soo excited for the RAVES reviews!! Yay! for PASSING STRANGE...

I am dancing the *****I TOLD YOU SO! ********dance...lol!

I'm rooting for PASSING STRANGE - Best New Musical!

J*

Updated On: 2/28/08 at 08:30 PM