On the Real

Some weeks ago, my friend Jamie told me to keep Tuesday open for some sort of mystery man-date. He then had to reschedule in two weeks because of some work drama, but the event would still be on a Tuesday. I was guessing that it would be us going to Comic Book Club, since I'd mentioned a while ago that we should check it out.


I'd never have guessed that I'd be seeing a musical. But, there we were, two straight men in the mezzanine, talking about our girlfriends until the lights dimmed. I recently read a piece in the New York Times Magazine about Stew, the play's writer/subject/performer, and thought some of the ideas in the production sounded cool, but filed it away in the back of my head. A while back, Jamie had played me some of Stew's music–from his band The Negro Problem and his solo stuff–and while I dug the power of his voice and the smartness of his lyrics, the music overall sounded too neat, too mannered for me. Passing Strange elicited the exact opposite reaction out of me. The play's a piece of "autobiographical fiction" that traces Stew's coming-of-age from South Central LA to Amsterdam to Germany.



Stew's songs wrap humor around tension around sadness with a bunch of funk, church and Broadway sprinkled all over them. (Now that I'm writing this, the music sorta reminds me of Cee-Lo's solo albums in their wide-ranging, psychedelic ambition.) He deals a lot with the idea of authenticity, especially as regards blackness. As Stew's onstage avatar tries to figure out what it means to really be an artist, to be really black and to be the real him, I laughed out in certain places where it kinda felt wrong but I couldn't help it.

The staging and the structure are spare and clever, with the small, terrific cast assuming multiple parts, singing along with the band, dancing, vamping and basically doing whatever is required of them. Stew himself narrates and interacts with his younger self, adding a fun metatextual layer to the proceedings. The emotions ring true in every bit of Passing Strange and, as Jamie said, it's good to see a rock musical that actually rocks. As I was watching it, I was thinking everybody I know needs to see this. (Some more than others: *Rakisha*)

There's no doubt I'll be seeing this again.