PASSING STRANGE

The first half of the Tony-nominated musical Passing Strange is exhilarating and polished and satisfying, virtually a show in itself. The second half wasn't quite as absorbing for me, but it's got enough smarts and good music to make Passing Strange one of the outstanding shows of recent Broadway seasons.

The story of a young man from Los Angeles seeking his "own reality," Passing Strange is a kind of soulful Siddhartha concocted by Stew with his frequent collaborator Heidi Rodewald. Daniel Breaker does a great job as the Youth, while Stew himself presides as the Narrator, the Youth's older self. The direction of Annie Dorsen and the choreography of Karole Armitage create a strong sense of theater with minimal set elements; in the supporting cast, Colman Domingo stands out in his role as a choir leader.

It's tempting to play with the word "stew" when writing about this musical, which skillfully blends many musical ingredients including gospel, soul, and show tunes. Passing Strange draws on a tried-and-true recipe as a coming-of-age story, but its specifics imbue it with a distinctive and enriching African American flavor. Adventure, confession, romance, revelation, and satire are all part of the mix. Sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll are well-represented, too.

I can imagine Passing Strange's producers considering its ingredients and picturing how the show could be a big hit, another sign of how an original and edgy and exciting new Broadway show can be a success. Throughout the show are elements that might have reminded them of musicals such as Rent, Hairspray, and Spring Awakening, to cite just a few examples.

Reaction to the show has been very positive from its early days, when Spike Lee wrote "this fresh musical is an unstoppable force of energy, music and mayhem, just what Broadway needs." The raves continued when Passing Strange made it to Broadway. Charles Isherwood of The New York Times called it "wonderful" and "bursting at the seams with melodic songs, [featuring] a handful of theatrical performances to treasure."

Passing Strange has earned such deservedly good reviews—along with three Drama Desk Awards, two Theatre World Awards, two Obies, the top prize from the New York Drama Critics' Circle, and seven Tony nominations—that one might imagine it hard to find tickets to the production. Sadly for the show (but possibly very good for you), many tickets seem to be available at present. The show even has an excellent rush policy that can net you a pair of orchestra seats for $26.50 apiece. I took advantage of the policy last weekend and joined the rest of the audience in giving the show a well-earned standing ovation. If you haven't yet seen Passing Strange, why not give it a try lest it pass you by?

Here's a Passing Strange medley, broadcast on The View, in which the Youth finds a new home in Amsterdam.



Source (5:53)

MUG readers: Click here for La Fille du Régiment.

GOTHAM CHAMBER OPERA: ARIADNE AND BEYOND

This season represents a change of pace for the Gotham Chamber Opera (GCO). After very entertaining stagings of Handel's Arianna in Creta, Respighi's La bella dormente nel bosco (with puppetry by Basil Twist), Britten's Albert Herring, and Rossini's Il signor Bruschino, the company embarked on a relatively experimental 2007-2008 season beginning with Astor Piazzola's dance-filled tango operita María de Buenos Aires and a kind of original staged mash-up of gypsy-related art songs entitled Scenes of Gypsy Life. In both María and Scenes, Gotham delivered musically. But for the performance of María, the dancing didn't seem to be fully realized. And for Scenes of Gypsy Life, the mix of songs didn't gel very well with the staging.

So I'm pleased to report that the musical and non-musical elements merge much better in the music-and-dance mash-up Ariadne Unhinged, Gotham's current production and the last of this season. For this work, artistic director and conductor Neal Goren indulged his apparent jones for the mythical character Ariadne (abandoned by Theseus after saving his life) by mashing up Monteverdi's Lamento d'Arianna (1608), Haydn's Arianna a Naxos (1789) and Schoenberg's Pierrot lunaire (1912) in a collaboration with director/choreographer Karole Armitage and scenic designer Vera Lutter (among others), creating what he calls "a songdance of a woman psychologically unhinged" after her abandonment.

Performing the demanding title role last night was Emily Langford Johnson, who alternates with Brenda Patterson. Johnson outdid herself in what amounted to an Ultimate Themed Recital in which the costumed mezzo-soprano offered impassioned vocal interpretations for more than an hour while interacting with the Armitage Gone! Dance company on a fully dressed modernistic set. Artfully veering between the off-kilter expressionism of the Schoenberg and the relative clarity of the Monteverdi and the Haydn, Johnson registered a wide range of mental states in a memorable portrayal of a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The deft musical accompaniment came from Daniel Swenberg on theorbo, William Hobbs on piano, Sato Moughalian and Bejamin Fingland on winds, and Christopher Collins Lee and Andrey Tchekrnazov on strings.

Ariadne Unhinged runs at the charming Harry De Jur Playhouse of the Abrons Art Center (466 Grand Street) through Sunday, May 11.

Coming up next season: Haydn's Il mondo della Luna (directed by Diane Paulus at the American Museum of Natural History) and Montsalvatge's El gato con botas/Puss in Boots (directed by Mois&eacu;s Kaufman with puppetry by Twist). Exciting!