Premiering tonight at 9 p.m. on THIRTEEN & THIRTEEN HD
The show universally applauded for its originality, deep emotional resonance, and powerful, high-octane score, makes its broadcast debut on Great Performances.
Passing Strange, the Spike Lee-directed film featuring the award-winning Broadway rock musical of the same title, is the semi-autobiographical story of a young black man who leaves behind his middle-class, church-ruled upbringing in mid-1970s Los Angeles to travel to Europe in search of his artistic and personal identity, or what he calls “the real.” There he finds he can exploit a “South Central” persona, playing the cool, black expatriate-musician who speaks for his people. Picaresque misadventures with sex, drugs, politics and art find him in a far-out Amsterdam and a hyper-militant Berlin. But in the end, he discovers that cultural complexity—and hypocrisy—are not limited to middle-class African American life, and that while to him art may be more real than life, only love is truly more than real. Co-starring with Stew as ‘Narrator’ is an extraordinarily talented ensemble cast, featuring DeAdre Aziza, Eisa Davis, Colman Domingo, Chad Goodridge, Rebecca Naomi Jones, and Daniel Breaker as the story’s central character, ‘Youth.’
The Broadway show won a 2008 Tony Award for “Best Book of a Musical,” and in total, it received seven Tony nominations, including “Best Musical.” The show also won a Drama Desk Award, a New York Drama Critics’ Circle Award and two Obie Awards. The highly-acclaimed score does not stand apart from the action as in some rock musicals, but advances the narrative through a sophisticated libretto. Charles Isherwood of The New York Times raves: “Passing Strange is bursting at the seams with melodic songs, and it features a handful of theatrical performances to treasure. Call it a rock concert with a story to tell, trimmed with a lot of great jokes. Or call it a sprawling work of performance art, complete with angry rants and scary drag queens. Call it whatever you want, really. I’ll just call it wonderful.”
On the Great Performances Web site, get a behind-the-scenes look at the Broadway production in an interview conducted by Spike Lee with collaborating creators Stew and Heidi and watch three clips from the show, including the songs “Come Down Now,” “Amsterdam,” and “Church Blues Revelation/Freight Train.”
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