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music by Stew & Heidi Rodewald, lyrics & book by Stew, directed by Philip Akin

Acting Up Stage Company & Obsidian Theatre Company, The Opera House, 735 Queen Street East, Toronto

January 27-February 5, 2017

Narrator: “Now I need something more than real”

The Acting Up Stage Company and the Obsidian Theatre Company have combined to present the innovative 2006 rock musical Passing Strange by Stew (stage name of Mark Stewart).  The show is basically Stew’s own Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, and it gives us an insight seldom seen on stage of what it’s like to grow up feeling out of tune in middle-class black American society.  The songs cover a wide range of styles, the lyrics have more wit per line than most Broadway musicals and the satire of the hero’s quest to be “real” is very funny.  Add to this a powerful cast, with the star turn of Beau Dixon as the Narrator, and this is a musical not to be missed.

Passing Strange is presented a hybrid of the rock concert and stage musical.  The venue, The Opera House on Queen Street East, is best known as a concert venue and the auditorium is configured mostly as cabaret seating.  A four-piece band is visible to the left and right on stage throughout, and director Philip Akin stages the theatrical episodes of the show with minimal props in the space between the two halves of the band.  In an alcove in the middle of the back of Steve Lucas’s abstract set stands the Narrator (Beau Dixon), who often comes forward to tell his tale and even interact with the characters. 

The Narrator, who introduces himself as Stew, tells the story in the third person of a Youth (Jahlen Barnes), sometimes called the Hero.  Only gradually do we realize that he is telling his own story, although designer Steve Lucas gives us a clue from the start since both the Narrator and the Hero are wearing the same red basketball shoes.

The action begins in 1972 with our Hero already in rebellion against his traditionally Christian mother (Divine Brown) by trying out Zen Buddhism.  When his mother manages to drag him to church one Sunday, the Youth is overcome not by the power of God as much as the power of music and vows to become a musician.  He finds two friends in the church choir and tries to start a band, although his drummer, in one of Stew’s digs at clichéd views of African-Americans, says he’s having trouble finding his “natural rhythm”.  The Youth also finds that Mr. Franklin (David Lopez), the leader of the church youth choir, the son of the pastor, is in a worse state than he is.  He’s gay and has to stay in the closet because of his father’s position and the community’s view of homosexuals.  He tells the Youth that he is “black playing black”, a theme that will recur through the musical in different situations. 

The problem with Amsterdam for the Youth as an artist is that everything is so cool that his urge to create is dying because it has nothing to react against.  It is a sensual paradise that is not the kind of “real” the Youth is searching for.  This is a big but difficult step in his maturation and he leaves ultra-laid-back Amsterdam for the tougher climate of Berlin.

There he falls in with a group of avant-garde anti-capitalist artists known as Nowhaus.  There is the Mr. Venus (David Lopez), a gay activist; Sudabey (Vanessa Sears), a feminist filmmaker; and Desi (Sabryn Rock), their Marxist leader.  The group accepts the Youth for a time and he forms a relationship with Desi.  But they eventually question his presence with them and wonder what sort of oppression he’s fighting.  Therefore, he tells them about what’s its like living in a ghetto and trying to survive the poverty and gang violence.  All of this is a lie – the Youth is “black playing black” – but it wins him a place with the group albeit as “The Black One”.  His growth as an artist, however, is cut short by a message from home.

Director Philip Akin draws committed performances from the entire cast.  In the Narrator, Beau Dixon, who has appeared in many shows before, finally has a role that showcases his talent for singing, playing guitar and acting.  He gives a fantastic performance.  His voice is more mellow than is Stew’s own on the cast recording and he even brings out more nuance in Stew’s lyrics than their creator does.  Dixon conveys exactly the right note of the sympathetic irony of a grown man looking back on his past foibles that gives the entire show its gently satiric atmosphere.

Strong-voiced Jahlen Barnes skillfully depicts the Youth’s growing maturity through the two hours of the show.  He makes the Youth seem as aimless as his Mother says he is at the very start.  He shows us the Youth’s first attempts a songwriting in all their awkwardness.  His adventures with sex and drugs in Amsterdam are hilarious, but blissful as the Youth is, Barnes shows how the Youth grows in realizing he must reject such easy pleasure.  By the time of his big experimental debut piece “Identity” for the Nowhaus, Barnes reveals a powerful and dramatic side of himself that he had previously kept undercover.  He shows us that the Youth of aggressive Berlin is no longer the Youth of sleepy L.A.     

It should be no surprise that Divine Brown is wonderful as the Youth’s Mother.  Her voice is rich but she can act the conventional nagging mother as well as bring a deep emotional subtext to the Mother’s phone call to the Youth in Berlin. 

The other four cast members all play different roles in all three locations.  All four deserve praise for keeping their Dutch accents so distinct from their German accents, which is quite a tricky thing to do.  Peter Fernandes’s three roles are not that well defined, but that’s because they are underwritten in the musical itself, yet, he makes the most of what there is.  David Lopez has the task of playing three different gay men.  These he does keep quite distinct.  The most moving of the three is the closeted Mr. Franklin, whose hidden pain is almost palpable.  His Dutch Joop is completely imperturbable while his German Mr. Venus is volatile with anger as shown in his aggressive performance piece “What’s Inside Is Just A Lie”.  Lopez’s moves are so smooth and agile it is no surprise he has played Dr. Frank N. Furter in the past. 

Vanessa Sears makes the materialistic church girl Edwina the polar opposite of the angry feminist Sudabey.  But her main role is the seductive Marianna of Amsterdam and she sings with wonderfully attractive voice.  Sabryn Rock easily distinguishes between the semi-comical Sherry of L.A. and the cool Renata of Amsterdam.  But her main role is the fierce idealist Desi of Berlin.  Here Rock takes on a commanding presence we wouldn’t have expected from her previous roles and she sings in a hard-edged voice that suits the part. 

Stew’s music runs through a huge range of styles from R&B, gospel and soul that we might expect, through sambas, anthemic tunes, Kurt Weill-like cabaret music, dissonant prog rock and gentle ballads.  Dixon, the cast and the four-piece-band led by Bob Foster from the keyboard and guitar play all these styles with panache.  My main regret is that the show ends so suddenly and arbitrarily.  I’d like more acknowledgement that the Youth’s journey, though on one level just an escape, is on another level vital to his becoming the person who thinks and feels more deeply whom we meet at the end.

Nevertheless, the show itself is a breath of fresh air in a world of musicals based on movies or stars’ back catalogues.  It is so original in so many ways we can only hope it will inspire others to break the bonds of what Broadway producers consider commercially viable.  The run of Passing Strange is already sold out as I write and its vibrancy has already struck a chord with Toronto audiences.  One hopes then that for those who hesitated too long to see the show, that  there is a revival in store.  And even for those who have managed to see Passing Strange, you already know it’s too good to see only once.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive. 

Photos: (from top) Beau Dixon and Jahlen Barnes; Beau Dixon (in background), Sabryn Rock, Jahlen Barnes, Peter Fernandes and David Lopez in L.A.; Beau Dixon (in background) Peter Fernades, Sabryn Rock, Vanessa sears and David Lopes in Amsterdam; Sabryn Rock, Peter Fernades, Vanessa Sears and David Lopez in Berlin. ©2017 Racheal McCaig.

For tickets, visit PassingStrangeTO.com.