You heard it here first!

Well, not this news story, but about Passing Strange, which debuted at the Berkeley Rep and which I blogged about then). I'm thrilled for him.

Spike Lee to film Broadway's "Passing Strange"

Wed Jul 9, 6:38 PM ET

Director Spike Lee unveiled plans on Wednesday to film Tony Award-winning rock musical "Passing Strange" because he wants to document the Broadway production "for generations and generations to see."

The show is about a young black man leaving middle-class Los Angeles to travel abroad seeking artistic freedom and identity. Writer and star, Stew, who real name in Mark Stewart, describes the show as "autobiographical fiction."

It was first staged at California's Berkeley Repertory Theater in 2006, then off-Broadway in New York in 2007 before opening on Broadway in February.

Lee will film the matinee and evening shows on July 19, along with two more performances without audiences so cameras can have access to the stage, and said, without elaborating, that he plans "to do some things that have not been tried."

"The story, the musicianship, the acting -- it was revelationary," Lee told a news conference.

"For me musicians are the greatest artists on this earth because the talents they have come directly from God," he said.

Stew, who does not describe himself as a playwright, but instead as a rock musician who made a play, said it was an honor to work with Lee.

"I wanted to be a filmmaker for a couple of years of my life but I didn't do it because being in a band was easier," Stew said, laughing. "I like all the awards we got but getting the Spike award is huge."

The show picked up four Tony Award nominations this year and Stew won the show's single Tony for best book of a musical. It also won best musical at the New York Drama Critics Circle Awards, Drama Desk Awards and Obie Awards.

There are not yet any distribution plans for the film.

Lee was nominated for an Academy Award for best original screenplay for "Do the Right Thing" in 1990 and for best documentary for "4 Little Girls" in 1998.

He recently sparred in the media with veteran actor and director Clint Eastwood, criticizing his war films "Flags of our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima" for failing to recognize the role of African-American soldiers.

But Eastwood said blacks were segregated in World War Two and told Lee to "study your history and stop mouthing off."

When Stew joked on Wednesday about Eastwood being given a role in "Passing Strange," Lee responded: "Dirty Harry is kind of long in the tooth."

Reuters/Nielsen

passing strange online & $25 tix!

Passing Strange
E X T E N D E D !
May 1st - July 1st, 2007
The Public Theater
425 Lafayette
New York City
TICKETS ON SALE NOW
Purchase tickets online
or call 212-967-7555

use this code for $25 tix: PSBB01

www.publictheater.org

brilliance

...I think, on principle, I like anyone over 40 still doing their artistic thing. Of course, I'm biased, but I think Art begins at 40. Americans are so terrified of being old that they don't wanna claim that reality. The young, exciting upstart with no scars reminds us of a time when we never had to think about our donut intake or death. She reminds us of a time when we didn't have to think about consequences. As a country, we crave Art which infantilizes us because we've never been equipped psychologically to deal with the darkness....

--Stew, 45

This evening my sweetie and I went to see Passing Strange, the new play by Stew at the Berkeley Rep. I first heard Stew when Kate gave me a Negro Problem CD years ago, and he immediately became one of the many beautiful things in my life because of my beautiful friend. How could I not love a straight man who writes this song:


Ken, from Joys and Concerns (1999)

My name's Ken
And I like men
But the people at Mattel
The home that I call hell
are somewhat bothered by my queer proclivities
It's safe to say that they are really pissed at me

They always stick me
with Barbie
But I want them to know
I prefer GI Joe
But any able bodied man-doll will surely do
Just someone to love, since I am not set up to screw

Black Barbie
You know she used to talk to me
But now she'd rather be
in plastic therapy
sitting on a plastic couch speaking freely
The only problem is she has no history

Some day soon
I'll be in your child's room
And I'll be forced to kiss
Barbie's plastic tits
And I will hate myself, but what's more I'll hate you
For not allowing me to love as I wish to

See, I'm your corporate toy
Cursed to bring you joy
And through divorce or death
I'll just hold my breath
And play along, your daugter's not to blame at all
For bringing these burdens to bear upon a doll

So, fa-la-la-la la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la

(Thanks to John who transcribed the lyrics)

I used to see him now and again around Silverlake when I lived there, and I was always quite starstruck but this ungainly, unlikely black man from the Valley who made the sweetest, smartest music, and I've continued to follow his music over the years. But I've very deliberately stopped listening much to music in the past few years, for reasons too complicated and unknown even to myself, except that I think my experience of music is too nakedly emotional for me right now, so when I listen to it now it's a very overwhelming experience, especially when it is music that moves me so particularly both for its power and for my private associations with it.

Passing Strange is an incredible theater/concert piece about a young black artist searching for and finding meaning and identity in the world, which makes it sound rather pretentious but it's hilarious and smart and moving and I would urge anyone in or near the Bay Area to go see this play during its premiere (tonight was the first show) here through December 3 (it goes to New York after this). I'ma call my friend Kymberly to go back and see it with me.