About The Movie
What do you get when Spike Lee takes his film crew and 16 cameras into the Belasco Theater on Broadway to dynamically capture the last performance of the coolest, most rockin’, most original “Broadway show” to ever play on the Great White Way? The answer is: Passing Strange The Movie, a Spike Lee Joint! This one-of-a-kind movie unites a brilliant stage production with virtuoso filmmaking, bringing the Passing Strange experience to a new level. The film is a unique “hybrid” that cinematically tells the story of a young boy in LA breaking away from his roots to explore the meaning of life, love and his identity as an artist and a person, while capturing the visceral, raw energy of the final performance of a live, high-octane rock-n-roll stage show. Or as Stew put it in that final farewell, “LAST ROCK SHOW AT THE BELASCO!”
The book and lyrics were written by Stew (the critically acclaimed rock-n-roll songwriter/singer/guitarist and two time winner of the Album of the Year from Entertainment Weekly) and the central character’s story is loosely based on his life experience. The kid in the play, referred to simply as “Youth” escapes his mundane, middlle class existence in South Central LA and goes through his journey of self discovery in trippy Amsterdam and hyper-militant Berlin with Stew himself as the narrator presiding over the story, giving his frank commentary mostly through song. Stew, his Drama Desk Award winning, long time musical collaborator, Heidi Rodewald (who co-wrote the music for the show with Stew), along with the rest of the band serve as both the orchestra as well as a character, playing right up there on stage amongst the actors and at times directly taking part in the action.
The Broadway show, Passing Strange, opened at the Belasco on February 28 2008 and was one of the most critically-acclaimed, buzzed-about musicals on Broadway in recent memory. It received the Best Musical Award from the New York Drama Critics Circle, won the Drama Desk Award for Best Musical and The Village Voice’s Obie award for best stage production of the year. The show was nominated for 7 Tony awards including Best Musical. Stew won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical. While most major theater critics thought Passing Strange deserved to win the Tony for best musical (including both New York Times critics Charles Isherwood and Ben Brantley) most of them predicted it would not win because the show, with depictions of drug use and sex was too outside the mainstream to be successful with traditional Broadway and regional theater audiences. Sadly, after Passing Strange did not take home the Best Musical award at the Tonys, the Broadway show producers knew they would likely have to close the show. Passing Strange closed about one month later on July 21, 2008. That decision set the stage for Passing Strange The Movie.
One of the many producers of the stage production, Steve Klein, was passionate about the show and couldn’t bear to see it just “go away”. Klein spoke with his partners at Apple Core Holdings, Ken Greif, Larry Horn and Will Kohane about investing with him in filming the stage production before it closed. When his partners who were fans of the show agreed, Klein approached the show’s lead producers, Gerry Schoenfeld and Liz McCann, as well as Stew and Heidi, about the possibility of buying the rights to film the last shows and make a movie of the stage production to preserve this important piece of art and philosophy. Klein knew Spike Lee was a huge fan of the show and had fantasies about getting Spike to direct the film. Of course, Spike is a pretty busy guy and the show would likely close within 2 months or less when this process started.
Spike Lee, who had just finished shooting Miracle at St. Anna, was available and enthusiastically agreed to do it on the spot. Spike said he was honored to be asked to capture such an important, major piece of work for people to see for generations. He also said that he would make a “hybrid” film, both documenting the actual brilliant stage production but also cinematically telling the story that he sees when he watches the play. Spike left almost the entire play created by Stew, Heidi Rodewald, and their co-creator and the director of the stage production Annie Dorsen (2 time Obie Winners all), intact, but shot the film to tell the story very much like films that are shot in multiple locations instead of on stage in front of an audience. Spike worked with both Matty Libatique, his cinematargrapher from Inside Man and Miracle at St. Anna, and “the cut man” Barry Brown who has edited almost all of Spike’s films, to make Passing Strange The Movie.
The result is a dynamic, lush journey filled with amazing music, beautiful poetry, great drama, profound philosophy, striking images, good comedy and a wonderful story. But don’t take our word for it. Read what the critics have said about the film and the play.
