The Public Theater has announced that due to popular demand, the critically acclaimed rock musical Passing Strange will extend for an additional four weeks through July 1. The show, which began performances at the Public's Anspacher Theatre on May 1, features book and lyrics by Stew who also stars, music by Stew and Heide Rodewald, and was directed and created in collaboration with Annie Dorsen. Contemporary dance choreographer Karole Armitage is credited with "movement coordination."
From Los Angeles to Amsterdam to Berlin and Back, Passing Strange is the story of a young black bohemian who abandons his bourgeois roots to journey to Europe searching for "the real." Discovering a world of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and art revolutionaries, our rebel-hero explores love, identity and the meaning of home.
Stew, founder of the pop rock combo The Negro Problem and a popular performer at Joe's Pub, was commissioned by The Public and Berkeley Rep to create Passing Strange; it was developed at the Sundance Theatre Lab and at the Stanford Institute for the Arts. Stew and Rodewald co-wrote the screenplay We Can See Today and, when it was invited to the 2005 Sundance Screenwriters Lab, they became the only artists ever to have projects in both the Film and Theatre Labs simultaneously.
Passing Strange features scenic design by David Korins, costume design by Elizabeth Hope Clancy, lighting design by Kevin Adams, and sound design by Tony Smolencki IV.
