Stew: My Strange Journey to an Off-Broadway Hit
On his website, Stew, co-author and lead performer of Passing Strange, wittily describes himself as "a critically acclaimed i.e., 'broke' singer songwriter." Right now, a more apt description would be "the critically acclaimed star of a hit off-Broadway musical." With his longtime collaborator Heidi Rodewald and director Annie Dorsen, Stew has transformed his youthful journey of self-discovery from L.A. to Amsterdam, Berlin and back into an utterly original, exuberant theater piece. Before turning to the stage, Stew and his eponymous musical ensemble earned two "Album of the Year" awards from Entertainment Weekly and were featured in the American Songbook series at Lincoln Center. Passing Strange was developed at Joe's Pub and the Sundance Theater Lab at the same time Stew and Rodewald's screenplay, We Can See Today, was being developed in Sundance's Film Lab, a unique achievement. And if that's not enough, Stew has composed an original song for the Spongebob Squarepants show! In the midst of Passing Strange's extended run at the Public's Anspacher Theater, where Stew joyfully gives a curtain-call shout-out to the late Joe Papp who would have adored this show, we asked the star to discuss his marriage of rock and musical theater.
The director of Passing Strange, Annie Dorsen, describes our show as "a concert out of which a play emerges." I'll buy that.
Therefore in order to best enjoy Passing Strange, I, your humble Narrator, suggest you leave your fourth wall at home. In the rock club world where Heidi Rodewald, my musical collaborator, and I come from, there is no such wall. A rock crowd acknowledges its role in the proceedings. It also drinks lots of alcohol. Please feel free to follow suit. Therefore, folks should drunkenly enter the Public Theater ready to rock and sing along… oh yeah, and to laugh at jokes about snooty church people, Amsterdam hash bars and German anarchists. In that order.
You wanna know the most terrifying combination of words in the English language to me? Rock Musical. Because the music featured in such so-called productions is stuff that no self-respecting rock fan would ever be caught dead listening to. Therefore, Passing Strange is the musical you can take your friend to who hates musicals.
But the big challenge of freedom is figuring out what to do with it. That's where my pre-show jitters come from. I don't get nervous about whether it's gonna be a good show or not. My rock-and-roll swagger doesn't allow for that luxury, since even bad shows have value in our world. No, my fear is that tonight I'm gonna do what worked last night rather than invent something new. I never want it to become a canned performance. I want it to be fresh and real and unique every night. I really feel like every audience deserves its own very special Passing Strange. But sometimes I feel like I'm driving myself nuts trying to make that happen.
Heidi and I have worked together for 10 years playing dive bars, stadiums and birthday parties. We've been doing it long enough to know that a gig's a gig. And our amazing band is equally jaded and joyous. We couldn't do this gig with anonymous pit musicians. Each guy's personality informs the show. And one of them is single.
Every once in a while, Heidi and I look at each other and ask, "Are we show folk now?" I did almost buy a pair of leg warmers yesterday but I fought the feeling—although as you read this, I am cutting the collar out of my sweatshirt.
But honestly, we're too "seen-it-all" to get overly excited about having a HIT SHOW!!! Except when someone told us Dick Van Dyke saw our show—that was exciting!! Okay, it was probably someone who just looked like Dick Van Dyke. But geez, wouldn't it have been cool if it really was him???
Having never been interested in theater before embarking upon this journey and having only seen a small handful of plays in my 45 years, I happened upon some stuff about the old Greek play competitions. I also read a little bit about the vibe at Shakespeare's Old Globe and—though I'm well out of my league here in commenting—it seems like those worlds were far more rock-and-roll than the stuffed-shirt vibe that scares most people away from theater. Think about it: people standing around consuming alcohol, watching and sometimes yelling at men onstage dressed up as women. And the joint was in a sketchy neighborhood? Wait a minute, I recognize that dive! I've been playing there my entire life!
Working with this cast has been a life-changing experience for me. Being from Los Angeles i.e. Hollywood, I didn't realize acting was such a high art. They really are magicians, shape shifters, alchemists and all that other mystical groovy stuff.
I wanna get in a large Partridge Family bus with them and this amazing band we have and drive around Europe making shows. We'll bring a dog along and there will be lots of velvet clothing involved. We'll make up plays on the spot. It will be the realization of my dream of the rock band traveling theater troupe. But until that dream comes true, come see the one that already has down at the Public.