If you read back in the archives here, you'll find I've been obsessed with the Broadway musical Passing Strange for quite a while. It closed over a year ago, but fortunately it has been preserved in the form of film. Spike Lee filmed several of the last performances to produce a record of this amazing work. The film has been making the rounds of film festivals, and it has been picked up by PBS for the 2010 season of Great Performances. But it is going to get a limited theatrical release later this month as well, opening August 21st somewhere in New York. I'll be in the city over Labor Day weekend and I'm desperately hoping it will still be running then.
In support of that release, the following trailer has finally come out:
The chubby guy in glasses and (sometimes) hat is Stew. Besides serving as the narrator of the show and playing guitar, he wrote the book and lyrics and cowrote the music. The book won him a Tony and the story is a loosely autobiographical tale of his own growing up. He's a really interesting character, as exemplified in this interview excerpt:
Dylan, cuz he’s older than rope and still serving musical subpoenas. I think, on principle, I like anyone over forty still doing their artistic thing. Of course, I’m biased, but I think Art begins at 40. Americans are so terrified of being old that they don’t wanna claim that reality. The young, exciting upstart with no scars reminds us of a time when we never had to think about our donut intake or death. She reminds us of a time when we didn’t have to think about consequences. As a country, we crave Art which infantilizes us because we’ve never been equipped psychologically to deal with the darkness. Dylan has never once asked us to look away from the darkness of consequences.
I also like Gore Vidal cuz he’s like “Fuck you—I haven’t mellowed. I’m still pissed and I’m more articulate than you and I’m 200 years old and did I say ‘fuck you’ yet?”
His co-composer is Heidi Rodewald, the gal in the white suit playing bass. They've collaborated for years in various bands and were a couple during the writing of the show. The New York Times has an article today on the long list of projects they've been working on since the closing of the show.
If you're lucky enough to be anywhere near the limited run of the movie, see it!
Comments