Pssst . . . have you heard? There's a new twist on the old "Negro problem," and its provided by a new Broadway musical called Passing Strange.
On a recent trip to New York, my wife and I stayed in midtown Manhattan for the first time. We both have, like so many black families in America, family in and around New York City's five boroughs. Old-school black families such as ours tend to stay with relatives when they visit the area. This time, however, we wanted to stay in the city and we knew time-constraints would not allow us to practically manage the whole family thing. So we didn't. She had but one purpose on this quick vacation: there were specific shows she wanted see. Easily the best, most complete performance we saw was Passing Strange.
The show was not on our original itinerary but came highly recommended by a family friend and former theater student at FAMU (and U.F., by the way), James Webb. After finishing his MFA at U.F. and touring a bit of the world, he's now completing his Ph.D. at NYU. Tickets to the Wednesday matinee were purchased, and off we went.
I was blown away by the show. Completely.
For entirely personal reasons, it may have been the best performance I've ever seen on the dramatic stage. That's just how impressed I was. Although I have very strong personal opinions, often quite conservative opinions for an African American, I am essentially a live and let live kind of man. As long as you're not crossing certain bright, non-negotiable lines.
From the very beginning, this show spoke to me. It consistently said (as far as I'm concerned, anyway), "I will decide for myself who the hell I am, what the hell I believe, and the life I will live." Now, that may not be such a novel concept on the American stage. It may not even be quite as original a Broadway production for an African American cast as I presume. But Black America is, and always has been, a diverse collection of folks forced into false duality: you're either [1] down with the cause, or [2] a race traitor.
Down with the cause, as defined by whom, pray tell? Here was a question which was forever destined to be never seriously put forward. If the question was engaged (for some ungodly reason) it was certainly never to be seriously considered by the black intelligentsia. For you had to be down with the cause, of course.
Passing Strange, however, asks that question and more.
The musical effectively spoke to (and alternately rebuked) mainstream black America, mainstream liberal America, and mainstream liberal Europe. Quite a trifecta, wouldn't you agree? The musical did not appear to address mainstream America, in general, but I have no doubt the creators of the show are reliably left-wing or on the far left.
That didn't matter to me then and does not matter to me still.
I saw a show that was simultaneously black to the bone, while maintaining a quintessentially American attitude via its refusal to give up ruthlessly seeking life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness as defined by an individual, not black America. Or any other group, self-identified or otherwise. I've never seen that in any other major production even remotely centered on African Americans. Black to the bone and ruthlessly individualistic? And asking whatever question you damn well please?
Never.
Well, about the particulars of the show: it begins in black, middle class L.A. and makes its way to Amsterdam and Berlin before coming back home. The protagonist of the musical is Stew, who also acts as his present, musical self and engages in conversation during the production with his younger self. All while accompanying the live band that plays at various times throughout the show. Stew, you see, is narrator, book writer, lyricist, co-composer and lead guitarist of the musical. You have to actually see this musical to fully understand how well they pull it off.
For a bit of the flavor of the man, here is how Stew is described on the website of the musical:
[Stew] is the critically acclaimed singer, songwriter, founder and leader of The Negro Problem, a pop-rock combo from Los Angeles. Works: "Post Minstrel Syndrome" (1997), "Joys and Concerns" (1999), "Welcome Black" (2002). Along with Heidi Rodewald he co-founded the Afro-Baroque cabaret ensemble known as STEW. Works: "Guest Host" (2000), "The Naked Dutch Painter" (2002), "Something Deeper Than These Changes" (2003). Artist-in-residence at the California Institute of the Arts (2004/5). Sundance Theater Lab (2004/2005). Sundance Screenwriter's Lab (2005). Sundance Director's Lab (2005). Passing Strange Berkeley Rep/Public Theater (2006/7). Composed "Gary Come Home" for the "SpongeBob SquarePants" cartoon.
Responding to the October 2006 opening of Passing Strange at Berkeley Rep, Stew touched on perhaps the central theme of the play:
"I don't know what this piece is," Stew says. "One day it's a rite of passage, the next day it's a real serious thing about the consequences of being an artist, some of it's about this illusion of authenticity. I think blacks in America have been burdened with this idea that they are somehow more authentic than white people, because we're soulful and we're in touch with something white people aren't in touch with, just because we can dance or something. So that's one of the major themes: What is real? What is authentically black?"
Now is that a timely theme or what?
Responding to the seven Tony Award nominations (including four for Stew himself), here is a representative quote from Stew:
" 'Passing Strange' is all about pilgrimages to the real, and my first real-life pilgrimage was to Berkeley when I was a teenager," Stew said through a spokesperson. "This is why it was so moving and important to me that the play premiered at Berkeley Rep. Berkeley embodies many of the ideals that are celebrated in the play - a place where people live as if their thoughts have meaning and consequence."
In the New York Times review of the show when it initially opened at the Public Theater in New York City (prior to its promotion to Broadway), Charles Isherwood penned an odd review that seemed to be somewhat obsessed with Stew's physical characteristics (bald and big-bellied?, neat goatee?, quirky eyeglasses?, professorial?, big domed forehead? -- I mean, who the hell is this Isherwood fool and why did the New York Times agree to publish this weird-ass review?) but at least he was somewhat paying attention:
“I mean, baby, we’re all freaks depending on the backdrop,” he shrugs.
Bright-eyed with wonder, young Stew jokes that they’re both “black
folks passing for black folks.”
And that, my friend, is passing strange.
On that tip, think about this; recently I was reviewing an old manifesto called The Negro Problem, first published in 1903. It's available now over on Project Gutenberg. And a paragraph from H.T. Kealing's contribution (The Characteristics of the Negro People) jumped out at me and made me think of this incredible artist known as Stew, although Kealing was broadly (very broadly) talking of the stereotypical black man at the beginning of the 20th Century:
He is imaginative. This is not evinced so much in creative directions as in poetical, musical, combinatory, inventional and what, if coupled with learning, we call literary imagination. Negro eloquence is proverbial [RattlerGator: emphasis added]. The crudest sermon of the most unlettered slave abounded in tropes and glowing tongue pictures of [apocalyptic] visions all his own; and, indeed, the poetic quality of his mind is seen in all his natural efforts when the self-consciousness of education does not stand guard. The staid religious muse of Phillis Wheatley and the rollicking, somewhat jibing, verse of [Paul Laurence] Dunbar show it equally, unpremeditated and spontaneous.
Immediately, I knew that Stew fit this description and demonstrated one entire century of real, genuine African American growth by negating Kealing's initial "this is not evinced so much in creative directions" line. Now it is, Mr. Kealing, now it is. Although this Passing Strange musical is obviously a tremendously collaborative work, it is black to the bone still manages to be uniquely American. Stew may very well claim ownership of the "citizen of the world" mantra, and in fact he may find much of American culture stultifying, but he is clearly the inspiration for a truly fresh artistic presentation. Although the New York Times' Isherwood seemed exceedingly odd in the early portions of his review, he nailed the essence of the play:
For all its witty puncturing of youthful pretension, and despite the
sardonic attitude Stew often strikes toward his younger self, “Passing Strange” is also full of heart. It dares in its playful way to honor those big questions that have set adolescent souls yearning for centuries. How to discover and be true to your convictions, how to live a meaningful life and still pay the bills, how to find the
understanding you need without throwing away the love you’re offered. Its mournful finale also acknowledges the damage that accrues in those heedless years spent asking them with such stridency, before you come to realize that learning to listen is just as important as making yourself heard.
Big questions that have set adolescent souls yearning for centuries. When you consider this topic, it really shouldn't be such a big deal that an unashamedly black show explores these questions from the perspective of an individual. Yet it is a big deal. And I may be wrong; other such shows may exist out there, but have they been so acclaimed? Other African American plays may have been as acclaimed, but were they as genuine? I suspect not.
Is this musical the signal that we as African Americans have finally learned how to listen? Learned how to let a man decide for himself who he was, is, and will be? Conservative, liberal or otherwise? I certainly hope so.
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