Passing Strange tonite (also The NYker Review)

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 2/27/08 at 11:17pm

A very incisive review last spring from the New Yorker Magazine. Take a read>http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/theatre/2007/06/11/070611crth_theatre_als

Tonite was 10 minutes shorter w/an exceptionally receptive full house, raving at the end with a very spontaneous standing Ovation! I'm such a happy shill right now!
Go, Go, Go if you love Rock and Poetry.

For those requesting more insight into this creation:...

http://www.kqed.org/arts/performance/index.jsp?id=11742
http://www.negroproblem.com/

http://www.nysun.com/article/54456
http://www.boldaslove.us/2007/05/boldas_live_pas.html


http://www.backstage.com/bso/news_reviews/features/feature_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003715505







Updated On: 2/28/08 at 11:17 PM

[TomMonster]

Posted: 2/27/08 at 11:43pm

I was there tonight and thought the show was uneven but oddly entertaining. The cast is superb and the show much funnier than I thought it would be.

There were many members of the nominating committee there tonight.

We'll see...

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 4:39am

Long review by an ATCer:

Posted by: jesse21 10:24 am EST 02/27/08
There's a moment toward the end of act one of Passing Strange when Stew, a troubadour of contemporary rock and our narrator, turns his mike to the audience so they can sing back a lyric line that goes "It's all right with me." They respond with the enthusiasm of the beguiled, for, you see, Stew's tour de force has long since seduced them into joyful communion as his show rocks the foundations over at the Belasco Theatre.

Stew is a charmer who triumphantly brings his coming-of-age creation, Passing Strange (from the phrase in "Othello"), to Broadway. People seem to want to closely link rock musicals for some reason. The facts are these. Passing Strange is as different from the other three currently on the boards in New York, Next to Normal, Rent and Spring Awakening, as those shows are from each other. In fact, if those shows do have one commonality, it is that they are full-fledged musicals, whereas Passing Strange is more a "concept concert".

Stew stands center stage, short, balding, trademark glasses shoved up on his forehead, guitar in hand, breaking the fourth wall from the get-go. At first glance, he's the visage of what you might not expect from a rock star, although it doesn't take long before the irresistible lure of the ingratiating bull**** artist, all ego and bravado, turns you into a believer. Stew narrates what is essentially an autobiographical story that takes a black bourgeois youth from South Central L. A. in the 70's, who's into Zen Buddhism and rebelling against his single mother's Baptist faith, on a journey to find himself -- and, importantly, his own self as a musician-- in the hash bars of Amsterdam and the punk cabarets of Berlin, before making a full circle to return home.

Four fine actors play various characters along the way. Additionally, Eisa Davis, both funny and moving, portrays the mother; and an absolutely terrific actor named Daniel Breaker has the largest role as "Youth", totally winning as Stew's alter ego throughout the show. Stew, himself, comments on the action and no part is more amusing or telling than the way he winces with hindsight as the adult looking back on the naiveté of his "Youth". Stew, as the undisputed star of the show, sings a good deal of the score and is accompanied by four other musicians, including his co-composer Heidi Rodewald on bass, all of them visible and spread out in positions around the stage set. He has worked with these artists previously in bands named The Negro Problem and STEW.

The plot that surrounds the score in this show is admittedly sketchy, broad brushstrokes that serve mostly to connect the songs. But what songs! And what a score! Essentially the libretto is contained in the lyrics. The music is not just rock 'n' roll, but richly layered with influences of many forms like the blues, Euro-pop, gospel, punk, electronic and even a bit of a showtune to land a gag that goes "we don't know how to write a showtune".

Well, that's a debatable point because Stew certainly knows how to turn a lyric into a story and give it narrative drive. One of my favorites in this regard is entitled "Amsterdam", the song that begins "Youth's" journey away from home and moves plot and character from one place to another. The beginning is the airplane ride; the middle is the wonderment of seeing the first place ever that doesn't look like home; and the end is becoming a part of the "new" home.

Not only deft in structure, "Amsterdam" does what you pray for in a "showtune". You not only enjoy the song inside the context of a musical, but you are eager to separate it from the show and have it playing on your iPod all by itself. Passing Strange has a number of "hit singles", all with such clever lyrics by Stew that I found myself smiling in delight. I stopped buying most cast albums, even of musicals I enjoy, because after a single play, so many of these never get heard again. With Passing Strange however, I plan to make my purchase on the first day of release because I feel these songs will get plenty of play from me.

Passing Strange isn't breaking any ground or pioneering some new form of the musical for Broadway. To claim anything of the sort would be a gross exaggeration. The word to describe it is "fresh" as in a fresh approach. In this regard, it has the same impact as the off-Broadway hit comedy of this season, Speech & Debate. You start to feel very early on that the author is communicating in a manner that you haven't heard put into words and ideas ever before. So your attention is riveted and, when the material is as good as it is in these shows, it transports you through to the end. By the way, a big part of that "freshness" in Passing Strange is a viewpoint about the African-American cultural experience that is untypical, an approach you're not likely to have expected.

This "concept concert" is more expensively mounted than it was for its run at the Public's Martinson Hall last spring. Downtown the audience was seated on three sides. Now it plays a proscenium Broadway house with the set just slanted out into the audience a bit, and to my surprise, it plays better than before. Annie Dorsen, who along with Stew and Heidi Rodewald collaborated on creating the piece, repeats her direction with help from the choreographer Karole Armitage. Both have added even more nice touches to their previous excellent work. And Tom Morse has done wonders for clarity with his sound design.

I have to once again salute that maestro of lighting design, Kevin Adams. It seems like only yesterday that I had all those good things to say about how he brought both acts of Edward Albee's Peter and Jerry together or how effectively he painted the rock musical Next to Normal. This time around, the Broadway budget has provided even a Tony-winner with enough equipment to possibly make him feel like a kid in a toy store. Not only has the eye-popping light wall of fluorescent tubes, a co-project with set designer David Korins, returned in its full glory, but there are seemingly hundreds of lighting effects that play like a suite of music overlayed onto Stew's score, making a show of its very own.

You can choose to buy a ticket for a musical like Passing Strange mostly because you want to hear music you think you might enjoy. It is the same feeling you get when you see a show like Jersey Boys. It's about the music. What surprises you with Passing Strange, just as it did with Jersey Boys, is how well the creators have woven text and presentation around the music to tell a story that makes the music viable for the Broadway stage.

Yeah, Stew, it's all right. It's all right. It's all right with me. That's what I kept thinking as Passing Strange rocked the roof off the Belasco.


- Jesse
Updated On: 2/28/08 at 04:39 AM

[Wanna Be A Foster]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 5:37am

I was there last night as well, and I immensely enjoyed myself!

Daniel Breaker was fabulous, as was the rest of the ensemble.

I hope Daniel receives a Tony Nomination for his strong performance.

The story was mostly engaging, and the score quite powerful.

I also loved Kevin Adams' lighting. It was very much like his design for SPRING AWAKENING, in that the lighting works as a part of the set design.

It's a wonderful relief to see something so fresh and different on Broadway, and I encourage people to get out and see this show.

Updated On: 2/28/08 at 05:37 AM

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 5:41am

Well, Foster, I'm sooo happy you, of all people liked it!! Spread the word! See (above) my xtra LINKS on the show. Enlightening.

[jordangirl]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 10:57am

I'm just finding it amusing... Seems there's a inverse relationship between how much certain people like a show and how likely they are to fuss about shilling. (As in the more they like it, the less likely they are to accuse someone of being a shill and the less they like it, the more they're likely to call someone a shill.) Hmmm...

Just an observation. :)

Updated On: 2/28/08 at 10:57 AM

[luvtheEmcee]

Posted: 2/28/08 at 11:15am

I saw it last night, too. I wasn't crazy about it. There's a lot I did like about it -- the cast, the writing -- but the score wasn't as good as I remembered it being from when I saw it last summer. I don't know, though, the audience went wild for it. I think maybe I'm just missing the boat on this one.

[thetinymagic2]

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

bump

[broadwayfan7]

Posted: 2/29/08 at 10:43am

Glad everyone is enjoying the show!