A Slight Delay

This is, I think, the third time I’m writing about Passing Strange, Stew’s musical at the Belasco Theater. The first time, I was exhilarated. I’d just seen the show a few days previous on its opening weekend, and still had the whole experience bouncing around in my head. The second time, I was hopeful; it was just before the Tony Awards, and I had hoped that there might be sufficient buzz around the play that people might actually go to see it. And I saw it a second time a couple of Saturdays ago, fiancee and parents in tow.

The third time–this time–I’m disappointed and a little pissed. Passing Strange will close after its matinee performance this coming Sunday. I realize that I probably sound a bit like a fanboy in that last paragraph, and I also realize that three posts about anything in the space of six months may seem excessive. On the other hand, I’ve been a fan of Mark Stewart’s music and lyrics since the first time I heard The Negro Problem’s Post Minstrel Syndrome about ten years ago, and have followed everything that’s come since. It doesn’t seem right, somehow, that something this good, from a writer this good and a cast/band so phenomenally talented, should end quite this way. (more…)

A little while back–the very first post on this blog, actually–I wrote about Passing Strange, a foray into Broadway by Stew, the Afro-Baroque singer and once-and-future voice of The Negro Problem. As of now (that’s around 11 Sunday night), the musical has won a Tony for best book, and is still in the running for Best Musical, which–in this writer’s opinion–the show deserves.

In a further update, the original cast recording comes out on July 8, though it’s already available on iTunes.

If you want to subject yourself to the original review, you can find it here. You can also go here for a great overview of Stew and TNP’s music from the Counting Crows’ Adam Duritz. And you can go to the Belasco Theater to see Passing Strange, and thank me later.