WISH-LIST WEDNESDAY: Passing Strange

Original artwork for Passing Strange

It's Wednesday again, and this week we have another musical that took rather a long time to make it to the UK for the first. Written by American singer-songwriter Stew, along with Heidi Rodewalk, "Passing Strange" is a comedy-drama rock musical about a young African American musician in his journey to discover more about himself and his artistry. It had its world premiere in 2006, at the Berkeley Repertory Theater in California, with subsequent runs at the Public Theater off-broadway, and later the Belasco Theatre on broadway; the latter of these runs earned the show 7 Tony nominations, winning for best book of a musical for Stew.

Giles Terera in Passing Strange

The original cast featured its main writer as the narrator, in a cast that also included Daniel Breaker, Eisa Davis and Colman Domingo. The show had its UK premiere in 2024 at the Young Vic in London, with a cast starring Giles Terera, and in spite of generally positive reviews, it has yet to see further life on UK shores. However, with the quality of the distinctly original score, and the uniqueness of its book, not to mention the fact it received Oscar winning director Spike Lee's seal of approval, after the director had the musical filmed professionally, there is no reason why we shouldn't see it resurface in the coming years.