Broadway Across America: Oakland

‘PASSING STRANGE’ GETS BROADWAY ROCKING; Singer-Songwriter Stew Does It His Way - 4/24/2008

Having very little exposure to Broadway musicals may have helped Stew (real name: Mark Stewart) write his own. With a background in the rock ‘n’ roll world and decidedly not the theatre world, his loosely autobiographical show PASSING STRANGE, now playing at the Belasco Theatre on Broadway, is something of an anomaly. It’s a peculiar hybrid of rock concert, cabaret show, performance art and musical theatre. And it’s unlike anything else you’ve seen before.

“I actually had preconceived notions of what a musical should be even though I hadn’t really seen them,” said Stew. “I just had this idea of what they’re probably like and I knew I didn’t want to do that. But I also knew that I wouldn’t be able to do that. So that was the cool part. They always say you should know the rules before you break them but I’ve always thought that was kind of b#llsh!t. Sometimes you don’t need the rules. You just need the urge to do something.”

The idea for PASSING STRANGE was spurred partly from the rock concert experience Stew was intimately familiar with as the singer & songwriter for “The Negro Problem,” his alternative rock band that attained a cult-like following and critical acclaim. Using a rock show setting as the foundation, Stew wrote the book and lyrics. His fellow bandmate and longtime collaborator Heidi Rodewald composed the music along with him. The storyline somewhat resembles his own personal journey but he’s quick to set the record straight.

“It was purely autobiographical for about the first two weeks, somewhere in 2004,” he said. “It wasn’t until I started sort of lying to tell the truth that I really started having fun. There were larger points that I wanted to make that I couldn’t make if I just stuck to the truth. You have to lie to tell the truth, a little bit.”

Originally from Los Angeles where his middle-class life was, by his account, rather ordinary, he became bored and disillusioned as a teenager and had a yearning for self-discovery. He was particularly influenced at that time by a lot of foreign films so he sought out a bohemian lifestyle that he had only known on the big screen and that had escaped him at home. He wound up in Berlin. He first visited the German capital in 1984, lived there off and on over the ensuing years and now calls it home.

Within PASSING STRANGE, Stew is fittingly cast as the narrator. A guitar around his neck and a microphone in hand, he acts as the guide, moving the story along while delivering witty commentary from center stage. He leads a small band (including Rodewald on bass) that surrounds him in pit-like stage positions on every side. A talented and versatile six-member ensemble cast led by Daniel Breaker as Youth – Stew’s alter ego - brings the bitingly-funny coming-of-age story to life.

Stew recalled the parallels between his upbringing and Youth’s quest as a rebelling black man in search of his real self. “What I was looking for was something very similar to what the kid in the play was looking for,” he said. “I had this idea that I wanted a certain kind of freedom that was a political freedom, a sexual freedom, an artistic freedom and a freedom with my identity as well. I didn’t want to be defined by my little neighborhood in Los Angeles.”

It’s hard to classify exactly what PASSING STRANGE is because it is a fairly radical departure from everything else currently playing on Broadway. Regardless of that fact, theatre critics have been welcoming the show’s recent arrival with a hearty embrace. Charles Isherwood of the New York Times said, “Call it whatever you want, really. I’ll just call it wonderful.” Jacques le Sourd of The Journal News exclaimed, “I love this show, which is so different from the standard Broadway musical that it demands its own category.”

“It’s a weird show, let’s face it,” said Stew. “It’s not your typical show and I think a lot of people come to theatre expecting to kick back and be entertained and our show tries to engage you. We break the fourth wall constantly. We deal with the fact that the audience is there and we never let them off the hook. We never let them passively enjoy the show.”

Stew equated the concert experience to “a sort of visceral call and response kind of world.” He added, “Our show endeavors to do a combination of rock ‘n’ roll and theatre. It tries to get people to at least sing along or tap their feet if they want to. It’s an interesting challenge for us. It’s a completely different world.”

For more information on PASSING STRANGE, visit www.PassingStrangeOnBroadway.com.

By: Kirk Wingerson

Season Ticket Holder

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