BROADWAY SNAP-SHOT
by Russell Bouthiller

Dateline: March 1, 2008

PASSING STRANGE

He's wild. He's hip. He wears sunglasses onstage and he goes by one name. Now, how cool is that?

His name is Stew and he is the brainchild behind the semi-autobiographical show, PASSING STRANGE, a coming-of-age tale that rocks and rolls nightly at the Belasco Theatre. Taking sole credit for book and lyrics, Stew shares the page and stage (as lead guitarist, vocalist and narrator) with his longtime musical partner, Heidi Rodewald, in crafting an electrifying score for this picaresque rock-eretta.

Directed by and "created in collaboration" with Annie Dorsen, PASSING STRANGE tracks the journey of the generically titled Youth (Daniel Breaker), a young, black musician who tramps around Europe for a number of years in search of answers to the questions that all young folk seem to ask themselves: Who am I? and, What is my purpose?

The odd thing is, our Youth has trouble presenting himself for what he is: a middle-class kid from L.A. Instead, he escapes his mundane environs and explores the connections between art and experience while tramping around Europe. Acceptance among his newfound artsy peers—as well as with himself—calls for a change in history. And, so, the Youth passes himself off as a deprived kid from the ghetto.

"Black folks passing for Black folks" is a topic that certainly intrigues Stew. Youth's Mother (Eisa Davis), opens with a pithy indication of this. She initially speaks with an urban patois, playing into the racial stereotype. Then, she allows the audience to hear how she really speaks, in a more modulated, mainstream cadence. This it the way most of us speak, black or white. And, Stew throws this in to immediately establish our common bonds.

Eisa Davis gives an effecting performance as the mother who lovingly nags her floundering fledgling, played briskly by the charming Daniel Breaker. De'Adre Aziza, Colman Doningo, Chad Goodridge and Rebecca Naomi Jones make up the tight company who flesh out the host of characters our Youth meets along his road to enlightenment. Under Dorsen's precise direction and intricate staging, the intermingling of onstage musicians and working actors gives the show a stirring vibrancy.

Oddly enough, PASSING STRANGE comes at a time when passing oneself as less deprived than fact will bare has fallen under intense scrutiny, of late. The case in point is that of author Margaret B. Jones whose critically heralded memoir "Love and Consequences," proved to be nothing short of complete fiction.

Claiming to be half-white and half-Native American, Jones presented herself as a foster-child who became a drug-runner for the street gang, the Bloods. In reality, Jones turns out to be one Margaret Selzer, a San Fernando Valley girl who was raised by her parents and attended private schools. Ironically, it was her sister who exposed the fraud after seeing poor Margaret's picture in the newspaper.

In a way, PASSING STRANGE is a morality play about the pitfalls of such duplicity, illustrated on the small scale with more intimate and personal consequences. Stew's musical reflection neither falsely praises nor severely indicts his folly, but recounts it as if clearing away the stones in the road to his personal development. This is an honest and soulful show that invites us to appreciate an artist's unique journey and enjoy a gritty rock score.