Charles Glenn Leads New Line Theatre's PASSING STRANGE 9/22-10/15

New Line Theatre, "the Bad Boy of Musical Theatre," opens its 21st season with the St. Louis premiere of the electrifying Broadway rock musical PASSING STRANGE, running September 22 through October 15, 2011, at the Washington University South Campus Theatre (formerly CBC High School), 6501 Clayton Road, just east of Big Bend. Tickets will be available in August through Metrotix, at 314-534-1111.

From Los Angeles to Amsterdam to Berlin and back, PASSING STRANGE takes musical theatre on a whole new trip. From singer-songwriter-performance artist Stew and his collaborator Heidi Rodewald comes a daring new rock musical that will take you on a journey across boundaries of place, identity and theatrical convention. Stew, a popular performer at Joe's Pub, was commissioned by The Public Theater in New York to develop this heartfelt and hilarious story of a young bohemian who charts a course for "the real" through sex, drugs and rock and roll. Loaded with soulful lyrics and overflowing with passion, the show takes off from middle-class America on a worldwide quest for personal and artistic authenticity.

Variety said, "Passing Strange could join Hedwig and the Angry Inch as a rock musical milestone." The New York Times called the show "fresh, exuberant, bracingly inventive, bitingly funny, and full of heart." New York Magazine said it "smashes Broadway clichés with an electric guitar and the funniest libretto I can remember." The Wall Street Journal called it "the freshest musical in town! The songs rock harder than anything else on Broadway."

St. Louis singer Charles Glenn (King Herod in New Line Theatre's Jesus Christ Superstar in 2006) will star as the Narrator in New Line's premiere of this amazing rock musical. In addition to his regular rock and jazz gigs here and around the country, the Emmy Award winning Glenn has sung the national anthem for the St. Louis Rams, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the St. Louis Blues. The cast also includes Keith Parker (the Youth), Talichia Noah (Mother), Jeanitta Perkins (Sherry/Renata/Desi), Andrea Purnell (Edwina/Marianna/Sudabey), John Reed II (Franklin/Joop/Mr. Venus), and Cecil Washington Jr. (Terry/Christophe/Hugo). The show will be directed by Scott Miller, with costume design by Amy Kelly, scenic design by Todd Schaefer, lighting design by Kenneth Zinkl, and music direction by Justin Smolik.

For more info about the show, visit http://www.newlinetheatre.com/strangepage.html

Charles Isherwood wrote about the show in The New York Times, "A portrait of the artist as a confused young black man emerges in vivid colors in the fresh, exuberant and bitingly funny new musical Passing Strange. The biography of a songwriter on a wayward journey of self-discovery, this bracingly inventive show introduces an exciting new voice to contemporary musical theater, a witty wordsmith, composer and performer who goes by the single name Stew. . . Part concert, with an onstage band, part book musical with a full cast, Passing Strange defies generic categories. This is wholly appropriate, since the story being told doesn't run in any of the familiar grooves of the African-American experience in 20th-century America. And if it does trace the classic story of the artist as a self-styled outsider at odds with mainstream culture (as personified by Mom), Passing Strange sets this boilerplate arc to a quirky new rhythm."

Isherwood went on, "Although it is far richer in wit, feeling and sheer personality than most of what is classified as musical theater in the neighborhood around Times Square these days, its big heart throbs to the sound of electric guitars, searing synthesizer chords, driving drums and lyrics delivered not in a clean croon but a throaty yelp... " Hilton Als wrote in The New Yorker, "Passing Strange is a brilliant work about migration -- a geographical migration but also its hero's migration beyond the tenets of 'blackness' and toward selfhood."

Passing Strange premiered in late 2006, at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California, then moved to The Public Theatre off Broadway in 2007, and opened on Broadway in February 2008, where it ran for 165 performances. The show was nominated for seven Tony Awards, winning one for Best Book. It also won three Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Musical and Outstanding Music and Lyrics. The show was also awarded the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical; the Audelco Award for Best Musical, and Obie Awarda for Best New Theatre Piece and Outstanding Ensemble.

ABOUT NEW LINE THEATRE

New Line Theatre, "The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre," was created in 1991, at the vanguard of a new wave of nonprofit musical theatre being born across the country during the early 1990s, offering an alternative to the commercial musical theatre of New York and Broadway tours. New Line was created to involve the people of the St. Louis region in the creation and exploration of provocative, alternative, politically and socially relevant works of musical theatre - daring, muscular, intelligent theatre about politics, race, violence, drugs, sexuality, religion, art, obscenity, the media, and other contemporary issues.

New Line has given birth to several world premiere musicals over the years and has brought back to life many shows that did not do well in their original New York productions. Altogether, New Line has produced 63 musicals and 5 concerts of theatre songs since 1991. New Line Theatre was recently given its own entry in the latest edition of the prestigious Cambridge Guide to American Theatre. New Line receives funding from the Regional Arts Commission, the Fox Performing Arts Charitable Foundation, and the Missouri Arts Council. For more about New Line, go to www.newlinetheatre.com/contact.html

PASSING STRANGE runs September 22-October 15, Thursday through Saturday evenings, at 8:00 p.m., at the Washington University South Campus Theatre (formerly CBC High School), 6501 Clayton Road, just east of Big Bend. September 22 is a preview. Tickets are on sale now through Metrotix outlets, including the Fox Theatre box office and the Edison Theatre box office at Washington University, or by calling 314-534-1111. PASSING STRANGE contains mature content and language.

HIGH SCHOOL DISCOUNT: New Line has created a new ticket discount for high school students. Any student with a valid school ID can get a $10 ticket at any performance, with the code word for that show, which will be posted only on New Line's Facebook page, at http://www.facebook.com/NewLineTheatre

New Line also continues to offer the COLLEGE FREE SEATS, ten seats put aside for every performance, free to anyone with a valid college student ID, one ticket per ID. The Free Seats will be available at the theatre box office, from 7:00 p.m. to 7:55 p.m. on performance nights only.

EDUCATORS DISCOUNT: New Line now offers all currently employed educators half price tickets on any Thursday night, with work ID or other proof of employment. Not valid in connection with other discounts or offers, available only at the door, and subject to availability.

MILITARY DISCOUNT: New Line now offers all active duty military personnel half price tickets on any Thursday night, with ID or other proof of active duty status. Not valid in connection with other discounts or offers, available only at the door, and subject to availability.

For other information, visit New Line Theatre's full-service website at www.newlinetheatre.com. All programs are subject to change.

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