Posted by: VanSchenck 04:42 am EDT 05/26/08
In reply to: re: Oh, please. - adamgreer 11:29 pm EDT 05/25/08
but you don't get it. Or maybe I didn't make my thoughts clearer.
It isn't the race factor (I don't instantly think you are racist if you don't like PASSING STRANGE) it's the Pin-Up factor. It's pretty clear that one of the selling points of SPRING AWAKENING is its easy-on-the eyes, nearly all-white cast. Its most prominently featured poster looks like it was taken from a bodice-ripping Romance novel. If you think that Mr. Groff's appeal was based on his stage talents alone, there are several heavily-breathing threads on other sites that concern his other, more physical aspects. :)
One of the things I love about PASSING STRANGE is that doesn't travel that obvious (though arguably more successfully marketable) path. It doesn't feature a conventionally pretty cast (though Rebecca Naomi Jones is quite the stunner). Stew even cheerfully jokes about being a fat guy in his mid-40s.
I'd feel the same way if it had an all-white cast.
I'm pleased that PASSING-STRANGE eschews soft-core physical nudity in favor of songs that are directly, emotionally naked instead. Even the delightfully frisky "We Just Had Sex" !
And I'm delighted to see a gay character (and a flamboyantly queeny one at that) not treated a joke for once, but rather as a shaman who instructs The Youth to explore and celebrate his artistic impulses.
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from ~tiny:
Stew's Blog, below...great reading (long) if you have time...)
http://stewsez.artlung.com/
