Lèse Majesté

Yet another Passing Strange post

I managed to see the Spike Lee film version on my recently ended trip to New York. See it on the big screen in a theater, that is - it's playing at the IFC Center in a run that appears to have been extended now into December.

Wow. If you have any opportunity to see it, run, don't walk. The experience is completely different from watching it on TV. The pay-per-view version currently available from Sundance is so heavily compressed, both visually and audibly, that it's like seeing an entirely different work on the big screen. Lee shot almost the entire thing in high-def video and it is crystal clear in the theater. The sound is pristine, too. I could hear and understand lyrics I was never able to make out previously in either the live stage performance on on the PPV version. Or the CD for that matter.

Even when PBS airs it, presumably in high-def, later this season I don't expect it to be as good as the cinema experience. For two reasons: first, your screen is bound to be smaller, and second, they're bound to censor a lot of the lyrics in order to be able to air it.

My previous reservations about the limiting effects of a director's perspective versus the full stage view were lessened greatly by the increased resolution and image size on the big screen as well. This is a marvelous piece of work. I really hope it gets a broader theatrical release than just this one theater so others can can enjoy the film (and the musical) in its full splendor.

First thoughts on the Passing Strange film version

(I wrote this on Aug. 28th but forgot to post it. Better late than never...)

I've watched it three times in the past 24 hours since I captured it off cable video on demand. I really, really hope it's still running when I get to New York so I can see it on the big screen.

I utterly adored the show on Broadway, as you can tell from my obsessive posts about it on my blog, and I've listened to the cast recording dozens of times. So my experience of the film is undoubtedly different than the vast majority of people who will see the film in theaters or on PBS this fall. Tony Scott's review in the NYT says it vastly improved a show he only somewhat liked in the theater.

I kind of have an opposite take. Spike Lee's cinematic perspective narrows our view by looking at the performances much more closely. So you miss a good bit of stagecraft you get through a view of the entire stage and ensemble. I think that's what you said you disliked about TV or film versions of operas too. I definitely feel it here. The negative side of that is somewhat balanced by a thoughtful point of view imposed at certain points, like seeing Stew over the shoulder of Youth, observing him screw up one relationship or another. I think I'd still rather see it again on the stage. But that option isn't available, so the film is worthy record of masterful piece of musical theater.

Despite my misgivings, I found the last 20-30 minutes utterly engaging as we see Stew open up his heart to show how he failed in his adult relationship with his mother and how he regretted it. But he clearly found catharsis in writing this work, and it is demonstrated beyond all doubt in the final song during the curtain call. And the film totally captures the energy and joy I felt during that closing when I saw it. I walked out of the theater that feeling I'd been through an emotional roller coaster and could tackle anything life could throw at me. That's a heck of an accomplishment for a couple hours of rock musical.

It's here!!!

Playing at this very moment on my big screen: Spike Lee's film version of Passing Strange! $6.95 on demand on the new Sundance VOD service, via Comcast's channel one in Minneapolis. I have 24 hours to figure out if I can persuade my Tivo to record it.

Passing Strange - it's coming!

Continuing my obsession with Passing Strange...

Spike Lee's film of the musical is opening tomorrow (August 21st) in New York for a limited theatrical run, presumably to establish eligibility for the Oscars. Check out that site - there are a bunch of clips in addition to the trailer I posted earlier. I'm hoping it will still be running when I get to New York for Labor Day weekend.

The main distribution deal for the film is with PBS, which will air it as part of its Great Performances series in the upcoming season. But here's the latest news. It maybe available on cable in the Twin Cities as early as next week!

The Sundance Channel is launching a new video-on-demand service on August 26th. It will be called Sundance Channel Selects and feature a rotation of films, documentaries, and games. The launch selection will be none other than Passing Strange! I checked with Comcast and they confirmed that they will be carrying the service on their VOD channel one. Keeping my fingers crossed...

Spike showed the film at the Sundance Festival this year, his first entry in that festival. Here's an interview with him before it screened. As he notes, the musical itself got its start at Sundance in their Theater Institute.

"Passing Strange" trailer released

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:

Whom do you admire and why?

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!

Tony nominations out today

And holy cow -  did I luck out on my picks on my recent trip! Each of the shows I saw was nominated for either Best Musical or Best Play. Next to Normal got ten nominations, second only to Billy Elliot. God of Carnage saw all four cast members nominated for either Best Leading Actor or Best Leading Actress in a Play among the six nominations it received. And even the silly Rock of Ages pulled in five nominations.

The full list of nominations may be found here on the American Theatre Wing's web site.

Another theater binge

So I've returned from another theater-focused visit to New York, albeit one somewhat constrained by my budget these days. As usual this time of year, the main reason for the trip was BC/EFA's Easter Bonnet Competition. But I managed to see three other shows while there, all Broadway and all discounted.

First up last was a matinee last Saturday of Rock of Ages. This was the utterly silly venture of the trip. I had 20 minutes to make a choice at TKTS and get to the theater, and strangely enough this one was on Charles Isherwood's short list of recommendations for the week. So I grabbed a ticket.

It's a jukebox musical based on the big-hair bands of the 80s with a loose plot about a Sunset Strip club being threatened by big nasty German real estate developers, with a cheesy little love story about a wannabe rocker who sweeps the floors and an innocent milk-fed midwestern girl who shows up and gets a job as a waitress. The crowd on a hot Saturday afternoon looked like one you'd find at a monster truck rally, reinforced by vendors selling beer in the aisles. And they handed you a trinket with your Playbill: a little vinyl toy shaped like a Bic lighter with an LED that lit up with a squeeze, so the audience could contribute that much more to the arena rock atmosphere. With all that, it was a fun couple of hours. Probably a whole more fun if you were a fan of the music when it first came out: Styx, Starship, REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, Poison, Whitesnake, Asia, Journey, etc. And one of the guitarists in the house band has legitimate credentials: Joel Hoekstra plays in Night Ranger.

The show that completely knocked me for a loop was Sunday's matinee: Next to Normal. I had invited a friend to join me at the Easter Bonnet, and she offered to buy tickets to a musical in return. I chose this one. It's a mostly-rock musical about a family in crisis. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who might see it, but you can find a synopsis of the plot in its Wikipedia entry. But the general theme is the effect of mental illness on a family. The mother, Diana, has suffered from bipolar disorder (AKA manic depression) and hallucinations for years and it has taken its toll on the family. Her illness comes to a crisis in the course of the show's story. Her husband Dan and their children Gabe and Natalie all deal with the impact in their own ways, told almost entirely in song - there's very little spoken dialogue. It's extremely engaging and emotionally moving. This is the only musical that has ever brought me to tears.

The cast is simply stunning. Diana is played by Alice Ripley, who not only sings her heart out but portrays the mania, depression, and total confusion of the character beautifully. J. Robert Spencer, one of the original cast members of Jersey Boys, plays Dan with all the pain and loss of a loving spouse caught in this situation. The older teen, Gabe, is performed well by Aaron Tveit, previously of Wicked and Hairspray. And Jennifer Damiano, who debuted on Broadway at the age of 15 in Spring Awakening, is better than ever as Natalie.

This musical has been under development for something like 11 years since composer Tom Kitt and lyricist/librettist Brian Yorkey first started working on it in a workshop. Staged readings were done as long ago as 2002 (with Norbert Leo Butz in the role of Dan). It had an off-Broadway run last year which received mixed reviews (with Brian D'Arcy James as Dan), directed by Michael Greif, who also directed the original productions of Rent and Grey Gardens. They took the show to the Washington, D.C., area for some significant rework, with D'Arcy James leaving to take on the title role in Shrek. The revised version is what moved up to Broadway in April. From all reports it is much improved. All I can say is it is astounding, original, and one of the best things I've seen on stage.

(Tom Kitt, incidentally, did the music for another show I really liked, the musical adaptation of High Fidelity. I still listen to the cast recording of that one regularly. Unfortunately, a petulant Ben Brantley killed it off shortly after it opened.)

The third show was a straight play, a very black comedy called God of Carnage. A single act of 90 minutes, it tells the story of two upper middle class couples brought together when one couple's son hits the son of the other couple with a stick and knocks out a couple of teeth. What starts out as a polite discussion of consequences turns into a farce with all four of the adults declaring war, a bout ot projectile vomiting, and general mayhem. It featured an all-star cast: Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, Marcia Gay Harden, and James Gandolfini. It was a hoot, but not up to the level of the previous show.

As for the Easter Bonnet, it was the usual massive collection of talent and raised $3.4 million for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The opening production number ended with a surprise appearance by Liza Minnelli. Very sad - her voice is totally shot and she could barely croak out New York, New York. Nonetheless, she milked the crowd for what seemed like an endless time, and it was clearly her kind of audience. Once again I got seats immediately behind the judges, and what a coincidence it was who they were. Immediately in front of me and my friend were Brian D'Arcy James, Alice Ripley, Laura Benanti (who I'd seen in the Gypsy revival last fall), and Marsha Mason. Immediately in front of them were the four cast members of God of Carnage! The eight of them were the judges.

Days 26-27

Monday and Tuesday, December 8-9: New York City. Started off with a visit to MoMA. After lunch in the 5th floor cafe, I toured the Joan Miró and Van Gogh special exhibitions. Still not much of a fan of Miró, but now I've seen a much broader variety of his work over his career. Enjoyed the Van Gogh, although I'd seen some of it previously on a couple of visits to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam.

The real purpose of the trip was a pair of theater events that are kind of insider deals. Monday night friends offered me a ticket to Bound for Broadway, a sneak preview at a bunch of shows in development. Check out that link for a list of the shows involved. One of the more interesting ones is a musical based on Dan Savage's book about how he and his boyfriend adopted a child.

The second big event on Tuesday was the 20th anniversary edition of the Gypsy of the Year competition. This is a fundraiser for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. As a major donor to BC/EFA, I've been lucky to get free tickets to two of their annual benefit performances each year for several years, and this is one of them. A friend of mine from Long Island, also unemployed at the moment, joined  me for the show (as well as coffee at the Algonquin afterwards). The benefit was a big success. Big news: Daniel Radcliffe is a seriously nerdy little dweeb. But he put on a good performance with other members of the Equus cast. And he kept his pants on, unlike in the show itself. The Equus company also set a new record for fundraising.

Just to top it all off, Tuesday evening I finally got to see Forbidden Broadway. This satirical review has been running for more than 26 years, skewering the hits and stars of New York theater with new versions on a regular basis. The current version is to be the last - the show closes in January. I've always wanted to see it but never managed to. This was my last chance, and it was literally the next door over from my cheap hotel, so I had no excuse. It was an absolute blast, loaded with inside references to shows past and present and concluding with a heartfelt tribute to Stephen Sondheim. Wish I'd seen earlier versions.

Why I like New York

Nearly got run over by a young Korean gal running down the sidewalk on Kimchi Alley (32nd St.) on my way back to my hotel at 1:00 a.m. from a faux Irish bar a couple blocks away. Where I had just been discussing the plight of Polish immigrant workers in Ireland's economic downturn (a question I asked) with the real Irish bartender and two Danish tourists who were heading up to Harlem tomorrow, all of whom were telling me how great a city Berlin is to visit as I sipped a couple Manhattans. This after a late dinner at a Japanese fast food joint (Yoshinoya) after watching Frank Langella rage against the machine in A Man For All Seasons. Wherein one of the supporting roles (Roper) was played by an American actor who looked very familiar because, as it turns out, I had seen him in a loooooong, full production of Long Day's Journey Into Night in Dublin a year ago, the night I arrived suffering from a combination of a sleepless night on the way over and inability to sleep due to jet lag.

Where else could all of this happen in one evening, and it would be one of the least eventful nights of a trip?

Dept. of corrections

Well, it's a good thing the New York Times cleared this up:

An article last Sunday about Broadway trivia that is referenced in the musical “[title of show]” referred incorrectly to Pia Zadora’s appearance in “Henry, Sweet Henry” (1967). It was her third role on Broadway, not her first. (She made her Broadway debut in the short-lived 1961 run of “Midgie Purvis.”)