The Offical Passing Strange Love Thread (Scaryotypes Unite)- Page 44

[dlh]

Posted: 6/16/08 at 2:53pm

I see that thetinymagic2 has already reposted my allthatchat message (thank you!) asking if there were any songs cut or newly written since the Public Theatre production last summer.

I'm still looking for a clear answer: all I've got to go on are the published song lists from Variety's off-B'way review and the B'way Playbill. But the lists are different enough that I don't really trust them -- it looks like the major difference is only that someone was more specific and detailed when they printed the B'way songlist.

So perhaps the experts here can help me answer the question. What songs were cut? What songs were added? What songs were substantially revised? Thank you for any detailed info!
my original post was copied into this thread on page 41

[blaxx]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 12:43am

More bump for more love.

[StateOfJade]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 2:27am

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cee-Lo
Cee-Lo for Passing Strange tour 2009? Anybody? Hehe.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=vbfhXyfbIfo
Not kidding. I think he'd be good for the job.

Updated On: 6/17/08 at 02:27 AM

[NYCboy2]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 1:35pm

Wow! Thank you!

[BenKaye]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 1:49pm

I second Cee-Lo being in Passing Strange.

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 1:56pm

me, too!

[chris d]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 3:31pm

I want PATTI in it!! :P

[BenKaye]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 3:34pm

If anyone's gonna be at the show tonight, could you tell us if Stew references the Tonys or anything, or if he says something different.

[gregj63]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 5:33pm

I'm going tonight, so I'll post any Tony comments that Stew makes.

[WiCkEd BaCcHaE]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 6:02pm

I love In the Heights but I'm so sad for PS. Anyone know or heard word of what this will mean for our show?

Love you, Stew and Heidi!!

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 7:55pm

Greg and WickedB - Greg - Sorry I missed you tonight, but I was on the "early" shift. And to Scaryotypes everywhere, the place was pretty full tonight and buzzing with curiousness!! A lot of NY and Hollyweird types!

I'll let Greg post later, but come and see the show - you might see the glass as half full, not half empty, or maybe full-full!!

All of 44th St. was beautifully happy with Broadway fever tonight!! Yay to ALL THE SHOWS. And you people lining up at Gypsy so politely, orderly and in a perfectly straight line all the up to Sardi's -- Wow!

[gregj63]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 10:36pm

Pretty big crowd, especially for a Tuesday night. Orchestra looked full, mezzanine where I was about 2/3 full, and there were people in the balcony though couldn't see how many. A diverse and young crowd, and they seemed enthusiastic about the show. Souvenir stand seemed busier than I had seen before. I could see some heads nodding to the music down front.

Stew didn't mention the Tony's at all, but seemed very relaxed, with some vocal twists and guitar licks I hadn't heard him do before. Colman Domingo was particularly good, and the rest of the cast was great as always. Lots of laughs from the crowd, which helped me ignore the elderly couple behind me who kept muttering "this is stupid" throughout the second act. Didn't hang around to talk to the cast at the stage door, but looked like quite a few people were waiting.

Overall, a great performance, no sign of a post-Tony letdown at all.

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 6/17/08 at 10:38pm

Another goodie for Scaryotypes! (from musicalmaster..)
.http://www.sendspace.com/file/yz5iwr
passing demo

Pay particular attention to Amsterdam ,
Keys (Stew singing Daniel's part, sounding
very wistful in the falsetto), and check out
the cool guitar riff towards the end...
Fade out, also.....

[winter_sky]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 1:12pm

Had a ticket for ItH for last night but sold it to go to PS. Another fantastic show and definitely the most responsive audience I have seen at the show.

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 4:59pm

Do tell more! (Details, details..)

[winter_sky]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 10:30pm

Stew did his little "It's Tuesday, right?" at the beginning of the show. The audience seemed really enthusiastic and later in the show, Stew seemed surprised and said "Tuesday!" to someone (I think Colman?) as if he was shocked a weeknight audience was that responsive.

I wish they could have had a truly post-Tonys show if you know what I mean, but it was still a solid show.

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 6/18/08 at 11:18pm

Excellent crowd tonight - (winter_sky), too. Stew made me cry tonight in the scene with him and Daniel, singing "Is it all right" in that softly crying voice (re his mother), towards the end. The audience spontaneously stood (100%) just before the curtain call. The think Stew and the group were genuinely astonished...and gave an extra special guitar riff!

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 1:45am

Negro Problem

Invariably, first one must discuss the matter of the name. The name the Negro Problem is meant ironically, but it's in no way used for simple shock value. Indeed, the name illuminates the entire raison d'être of the band: although artists as disparate as Jimi Hendrix, Love, the Chambers Brothers, and the Fifth Dimension were making psychedelic rock music in the late '60s, a disturbing racial divide has reasserted itself since then. The concept of a supposed stylistic division into "white music" and "black music," a holdover from the first half of the 20th century when records by black artists were shunted over into the "race music" category, has insidiously grown back since the genre-busting, polyglot days of the immediate post-Civil Rights era, into an even stronger and more invisible divide. Once in a blue moon, a Prince or a Lenny Kravitz might gain a foothold in the rock marketplace, but more often, a genre-busting artist like Chocolate... Read More

Invariably, first one must discuss the matter of the name. The name the Negro Problem is meant ironically, but it's in no way used for simple shock value. Indeed, the name illuminates the entire raison d'être of the band: although artists as disparate as Jimi Hendrix, Love, the Chambers Brothers, and the Fifth Dimension were making psychedelic rock music in the late '60s, a disturbing racial divide has reasserted itself since then. The concept of a supposed stylistic division into "white music" and "black music," a holdover from the first half of the 20th century when records by black artists were shunted over into the "race music" category, has insidiously grown back since the genre-busting, polyglot days of the immediate post-Civil Rights era, into an even stronger and more invisible divide. Once in a blue moon, a Prince or a Lenny Kravitz might gain a foothold in the rock marketplace, but more often, a genre-busting artist like Chocolate Genius or Shuggie Otis remains firmly locked, in the industry view, in the euphemistically-named "urban" marketplace. This is why singer/songwriter Mark Stewart's band is called the Negro Problem, and it's why that is such a brilliant name: how else will the music industry see an otherwise white band fronted by a black man whose primary influences include not only Sly Stone and George Clinton, but also Jimmy Webb, Stephen Sondheim, Burt Bacharach, Syd Barrett, Brian Wilson, and Paul McCartney, except as a problem?

Stewart, who goes by the name Stew (at least partially to differentiate himself from the British-born former singer for the Pop Group and New Age Steppers), fills his lyrics with that sort of bracing, ironic wit, and his tunes mix soulful vocals, the muscularity of hard rock and the unabashed prettiness of his beloved Webb (the group did a surprisingly rocking cover of Richard Harris' "MacArthur Park" on an early single, and Stew counts Webb protégés the 5th Dimension among his all-time favorites) into a trippy but accessible brand of psych-influenced power pop. Surprisingly, Stew did not enter music professionally until his thirties, forming the Negro Problem in 1995 after resettling in the Los Angeles suburb of Silverlake after a period spent living in Europe. The original lineup included keyboardist Jill Meschke Blair, bassist Gwynne Kahn (formerly of the Pandoras), and drummer Charles Pagano, with the Wondermints' multi-instrumentalist Probyn Gregory helping out as an auxiliary member.

The group made their recording debut with an attention-grabbing limited-edition boxed set of five singles in late 1995, following that with the equally eyebrow-raising single of "MacArthur Park" (changing the key line to "Someone left the crack out in the rain" to illustrate the L.A. landmark's decline) and the "A Quick One While He's Away"-style multi-part pop-operetta "Miss Jones" the next year. Both of those songs showed up on the group's full-length debut, Post-Minstrel Syndrome, in 1997, along with 11 other freaky, Phil Spector-on-acid psych-pop gems. The album gains extra emotional heft, however, from the five unlisted bonus tracks: three haunting solo acoustic performances by Stew, the anxiety-ridden full-band performances "Camelot" and "Racket," a mélange of silly on-the-road tape recordings and giggles that are meant as a farewell to the original lineup, which was breaking up as the record was being completed.

Blair was the first to leave, followed by Kahn. A revolving door lineup of temporary keyboardists and bassists (including Gregory and Adam Marsland of Cockeyed Ghost) joined the group on their many tours until former Wednesday Week bassist Heidi Rodewald joined, filling both roles. The second Negro Problem album, 1999's Joys and Concerns, was recorded as a trio with guest musicians. A darker and more foreboding work than Post-Minstrel Syndrome, Joys and Concerns deals in large part with the breakup of Stew's marriage, and was originally recorded as major-label bankrolled demos, which the trio then finished on their own rather than wait for the record company to make up its mind.

Compounding the slow-motion dissolution of the Negro Problem, Pagano left the group in late 1999, although he continued to perform with them on occasion. Stew, with Rodewald's help, recorded and released his first solo album, the critically acclaimed Guest Host, in 2000. Upon its release, Stew announced that the Negro Problem was not breaking up, but that his solo career was meant as a vehicle for the acoustic singer/songwriter-style songs on the first two Negro Problem discs, so that the full-band records could become, in his words, "even freakier." The first test of this was 2002's Welcome Black, a step towards baroque pop that did seem to include more ideas from the band as a whole. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide Hide
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[StateOfJade]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 3:14am

I was there for the matinee perf. They've changed some things, not noticeable unless you've seen the show 900 times, but there are some added guitar chords and vocal riffs. Not that they weren't changing things before the Tony's, but I thought it was interesting. Also, Rebecca now argues with Stew instead of Heidi and Colman during the 'HETEROSEXUAL LOVE LACKS DRAMA!' debate, and she says to him' Whatever, just narrate' and it was very funny.

As for the fate of the show...from the horse's mouth (I don't want to hold one certain person accontable for saying something); closing is inevitable. It's a question of how long they can hold out. It sonds like it's just a waiting game at this point, but it sounds like at the most there are a few more weeks left unless ticket sales spring up

[titleofusername]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 3:18am

I hate to badger, I know it's annoying, but how many weeks would you say? Two, three, five?

[TooDarnHot]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 3:21am

Hopefully 800,000,000 weeks before this masterpiece closes.

I will be so sad to see it go.

It really just wasn't mainstream enough for Broadway... what a shame.

[titleofusername]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 3:23am

I'm so nervous. I don't even want to begin to imagine a Broadway without this show.

Again, I can't emphasize enough how selfish I feel, but PLEASE stay open at least to July 19th! I want to give the show a proper goodbye.

[StateOfJade]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 3:25am

I really can't say because I'm not certain. I'm just hoping people will give peas a chance and maybe it can last a little longer . I'm not ready to see it close, not at all...

[thetinymagic2]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 3:25am

TDH, http://stewsez.artlung.com/2008/05/09/106/
Our genius.

[titleofusername]

Posted: 6/19/08 at 3:28am

We shouldn't even be worrying about a closing in the first place. This show is better than most of the stuff on Broadway. I just don't understand how such brilliant shows get brushed off by so many people.

Updated On: 6/19/08 at 03:28 AM