I really hope they change the final track for the actual CD. That fade out of "My name is Stew" doesn't make me happy. I was really hoping for that rocking curtain call music, which is basically the Prologue again, but seemingly different.
I hope that the cd is edited a little better. A few of the tracks end so abruptly. But other than that, cleaned the house in record time this am. And glad to see some love from Brantley and Isherwood Tony picks. I think they feel mighty REAL!
Since I'm not a New England resident, it's very difficult to travel hundreds of miles to see shows in NY. As a result, like many ppl, I only have the recordings of shows to enjoy. With that said...
I'm a new Passing Strange fan! Bought the recording two days ago and fell in love. Congrats to the cast and crew for making a great album. What a great experiemental, risky show!
Now, hopefully, the full lyrics to the show will be posted somewhere online and I can enjoy every word. . .
"Truth is rarely pure and never simple."- Oscar Wilde
"If I could only do one thing before I died, it would be to swim with a middle-aged couple from Connecticut."- a dolphin
So glad you enjoyed the recording with out seeing the show. The music and lyrics really are so wonderful and powerful. I love listening to every second. And ditto on needing the full lyrics; I would love a libretto for this show!
There is something in the works. A volunteer on my NY Cares project works for the publishing company that is handling it. Just no sense of timing. If I can remember her name I'll see what I can find out.
Tiny, The NYTIMES article is posted on another thread. It certainly made my weekend reading there thoughts. And I wholeheartly agree about the lyrics. In the song Stoned, what is he singing Mariana or about smoking tree. I think the latter of the two, but I just can't tell. And I don't want to use that word(I"m afraid to get deleted). Thanks joe
Do you have any clue as to what will be my suprise this Wednesday? well more of a gift to you guys! I was supposed to put a clue that goes: look at me avatar-but somehow this morning, there's an issue with downloading again... so here is the clue:
The Real.... is to be revealed...right here within this thread!
Mamaaaaaaa, ohh, Marianna and Moroccan hash have got me stoned, And I can’t find my way home. Mamaaaaaaa, she's serving every one of my desires On a platter, but it doesn't even matter anymore. Oh-oh, paradise is a bore, It doesn't even matter anymore.
I'm loving the cast album! It's getting more play time on my iPod than any of my other new cast albums. I'm seeing the show a second time on my mini vacation trip to New York next week and really looking forward to it!
'Stew' and his collaborator Heidi Rodewald perform a number from their Tony-nominated Broadway show PASSING STRANGE on THEATER TALK's upcoming Critics' Cavalcade, which premieres Wednesday, June 11 at 12:30 AM on Thirteen (PBS in NYC).
What I love most about PASSING STRANGE is the fact that so many of the songs sound like they'd come right off Stew and TNP's albums. They didn't create a musical theater score. And for that, I am eternally grateful.
We do not have them in the office yet, so I won't be shipping right away. I will let you know as soon as they arrive!
And as you already know, the digital version is available from iTunes right now : )
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J*, you're killing us w/the teaser! Welcome new posters and potential SCARYOTYPES Sh-K-Kate, Devonian,CourtNYJ, etc. for your wonderful posts. Hope you can join our next (real life) party!
YOUNGSALLY, that video link absolutely blew me away, in it's gorgeous simplicity!! Actually, I could watch this entire show with NO amplification, no scenery, lights... JUST the simplicity on a bare, Off-Off Bway stage..or in someone's living room.
And who ever said that Stew can't act? THAT's acting you can't teach in school.
As a musician myself, I always find that the greatest song writers of the past and present (1920s onward) can write JUST a melody line, without any plush orchestration, and be absolutely GENIUS! Kern, Porter, Gershwin, Sondheim, L. Bernstein, Styne, Herman, etc.
"Work the Wound," is my vote for Best Song in Passing Strange. All the songs are amazing, bu this song is just so emotional, and so powerful, nothing is better than it.
Daniel Breaker Breaker Breaker If you need a little good luck, root for Daniel Breaker to cross your path. The man is recently married, has a baby on the way, and is up for a Tony for his role in Passing Strange, the first professional musical he's ever done. "I am going to cure cancer in July, so as soon as that's done I think I'll just take a break," he jokes. The way things are going, don't doubt it.
Question: Congrats on the Tony nomination. What was your first reaction? Daniel Breaker: Thank you. I didn't believe it. I did not believe it at all. The Tony website sort of popped up with the information before CBS did. I got the information like half an hour before TV, so I got with my wife, and we looked online, and I was like, "This isn't really happening." And then they announced it, and I thought, "This really isn't happening, and at like two o'clock that day, I took it in and realized life is going to change a bit.
Q: So you're not someone who is going to pretend you weren't really paying attention. Breaker: Oh, of course, I was. There was all this talk about it. With my family alone, they would call me and ask me if I got nominated for a Tony yet. So, they sort of added the pressure. My mom and dad — we sent them out to Vegas for Mother's Day, and at 5:00–5:30 in the morning their time, they woke up to investigate to see if the news was out, so they were some of the first to call. I got lots of sleepy yet excited phone calls from my family. I also have a sister out in L.A. who called that early hour also.
Q: What was it like showing up at the theatre after finding out something like that? Breaker: This play, this musical, this project is an ensemble. And I don't mean that in the B.S. sort of way, it really is. The only reason we are here is because of the band and the actors and the creative team, so it feels like we all got nominated for seven awards, and it does feel like a collective, so everybody was on Cloud Nine that day. As a result, the audience is a bit more supportive, a bit larger, so the show was actually somewhat easier to get through because we don't have to get the crowd to join us. It's not as difficult as it was before; as soon as they come in, they are having a great time.
Q: Would you have envisioned this success for yourself and the show a couple years ago? Breaker: Yeah, this was never my plan. I never actually had dreams of being on Broadway. I definitely didn't have dreams of being in a musical. Also, when I joined the show at Sundance back in 2005, I could not even imagine that this show would have legs on Broadway. But a series of events have happened to help us get here, and also I think audiences are looking for something like this show. It was also sort of a good year in terms of the Broadway world — I feel like we have a balance of funky, new, downtown musicals that make it uptown and classics like Gypsy, like South Pacific, which I think is exactly what Broadway should be. It should be both of those things.
Q: What's the most fun that you have at any given performance of Passing Strange? Breaker: I love it all. The show is always different. There's always new things that we discover in the show, and musically Stew tries new things, so that's always fun. The fact that it is live and that it's different each night really is enjoyable because you never get bored. He's doing this new part in the show during the song "Keys," where we sing "It's all right," where the music cuts out and it's just a little drumbeat, and everybody is singing, "It's all right" without any musical accompaniment, and that is a hell of a lot of fun, and the music crashes back in, and that elevates the show, and just takes it to a whole new level, and the audience comes along. And that's been a new, fun element, but really it's everything, from the top of the show to the curtain call. It's just damn fun. It's a great way to live.
Q: You lived in many different places growing up. Did the transient life inform your acting? Breaker: I think a lot of army brats tend to be actors. When you travel around so much, you get to appreciate the kinds of masks that people sort of wear or the traditions that people have in their lives. I think I took in so much, so many different cultures, so many different backgrounds, both racially and economically, that I sort of brought all those things onto the stage. I think this play sort of epitomizes that idea because this kid wears different hats throughout the show. So it was very true-to-form.
Q: In your recent "Cue & A" interview for Playbill.com, you had several references to classical music. Did that come from your days at Juilliard? Breaker: My two loves other than my family are cooking and classical music. One of the few constants when I traveled around was Mozart, so I attached to him, and when I got into college… You know, Juilliard is just real rife with geniuses, so it was a wonderful opportunity to kind of drink in all of the magnificent musicians, so I am like a little armchair conductor, I guess you could say. I love music — anything that is communicating an emotion or a thought through music is beautiful. And when it can elevate itself to trigger emotions in someone, it's awe-inspiring. So whenever that happens, it's great. I mean, for some it happens in Gypsy, and for others it happens in In the Heights, and for me it happens in a Bach fugue.
Q: Have you thought of how you are going to be on Tony night? Playing it cool? Breaker: Honestly, the thing I'm really looking forward to is my beautiful pregnant wife next to me in her lovely gown, my mom, my dad, my brothers and sisters also there. The Breakers of Jacksonville are coming in!
I agree with you on Working the Wound....it is easily one of the strongest songs in a show of strong songs. While I haven't seen ITH, what I have listened to is great, but it doesn't have the character of the PS music. Particularly in the subtle lyric changes -- the pain, her pain, your pain....the wound, her wound, your wound....
What really struck me in the video (now that we have a little more insight into the Stew/Heidi "collaboration" is how this song may have well come out of their breakup....watch how he points towards her towards the climax.
