PASSING STRANGE creators Stew and Heidi Rodewald will premiere a new concert on February 17th at St. Ann's Warehouset the New York Times is reporting. The concert, entitled "Making It," details their journey from New York night clubs to Broadway. The concert will run from February 17th through February 22nd.
The concer was commissioned by by St. Ann's Warehouse and features a multimedia design theme, created by Jim Findlay and Jeff Sugg. The concert will feature a new song cycle along with the video multimedia.
A band will join Stew and Rodewald onstage as they did in PASSING STRANGE. The band will include drums, brass, keyboard, tuba, and trombone.
Passing Strange won a Tony Award, two Obie Awards, three Drama Desk Awards, four Audelco Awards, two Theatre World Awards, and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award.
It made its world premiere at Berkeley Rep in 2006 and transferred to an extended off-Broadway engagement at The Public Theater in 2007. It enjoyed a six-month Broadway run at the Belasco Theatre in 2008, produced by The Shubert Organization and Elizabeth Ireland McCann in association with Berkeley Rep and The Public.
PASSING STRANGE tells the semi-autobiographical story of a young black man who leaves behind his middle-class, church-ruled upbringing in mid-1970s LA to travel to Europe in search of his artistic and personal identity, or what he calls "the real." Picaresque misadventures with sex, drugs, politics, and art await him in far-out Amsterdam and hyper-militant Berlin. His eyes are opened ever wider, even revealing what he left behind. An absolutely superb cast, ably supported by sparing (but pitch-perfect) costumes, design, and stagecraft, bring to life the emotionally charged story with its astounding original music, narrated and overseen by Stew himself. Spike Lee filmed the show using multicamera coverage of the event (including backstage scenes) involves the audience in not only the text but the electricity of the ensemble's onstage adventure.
Stew rocked Broadway the way it never had before when his musical, Passing Strange, opened in 2008. It won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical and made a star out of its writer, Stew, and his writing partner, Heidi Rodewald. Stew and Rodewald return to American Songbook (they performed in the series in 2003) with music from their early career and the band they founded in 1995, The Negro Problem. The group was ironically named to highlight the music industry's problems with an all white band fronted by a black man whose influences were not only Stevie Wonder but also Stephen Sondheim. Stew's discography includes four recordings with The Negro Problem, and another four as Stew, two of which were named Album of the Year by Entertainment Weekly: Guest Host and The Naked Dutch Painter and Other Songs.
Performances of "Making It" take place February 17th, 18th, 19th, 20th, and 22nd at 8:00pm and February 21st at 7:00pm. Tickets range in price from $42 to $75 and are available online at www.ovationtix.com or through the St. Ann's Warehouse Box Office at 718.254.8779.
For more information, visit www.stannswarehouse.org.
