Casting Complete for Public's Passing Strange; Starts May 1

Casting is now complete for the Public Theater's world premiere production of Passing Strange. Joining previously announced stars/co-conceivers Stew and Heidi Rodewald on stage in this new rock musical will be the full cast from last fall's Berkeley Rep production: de'Adre Aziza, Daniel Breaker, Eisa Davis, Colman Domingo, Chad Goodridge and Rebecca Naomi Jones.

A recent NYU grad, Aziza has worked with the Classical Theatre of Harlem and won several jazz vocal awards. Breaker has appeared on Broadway in Well and off-Broadway in Fabulation and Pericles. In addition numerous stage screen credits, Davis has performed her original music on Showtime's Soul Food and at various New York music venues. Domingo's off-Broadway credits include American Maul, Bright Ideas, Henry V, Up Jumped Springtime, and Wet. Goodridge appeared off-Broadway in The Debate over Courtney O'Connell and Home Free!; and Jones recently appeared in the Fringe's Fallen Angel as well as the Los Angeles production of Caroline, or Change and the national tours of Little Shop of Horrors and Rent.

Stew, a popular performer at Joe's Pub and twice-named by Entertainment Weekly as an album of the year pick, was commissioned by The Public and Berkeley Rep to develop this moving and hilarious story of a young black bohemian in search of self and home who charts a course for "the real" through sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Loaded with soulful lyrics, packed with political irony, and overflowing with passion, the show takes us from black, middle-class America to Amsterdam, Berlin, and beyond. It's a quirky journey from L.A. to authenticity, crossing boundaries of place, identity, and theatrical convention on the way.

Filling out the eclectic company will be a band that includes guitarist, keyboardist, and musical supervisor Jon Spurney Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Double Naught Spy Clear's bassist, Marc Doten and drummer Christian Cassan.

Created in collaboration with and directed by Annie Dorsen, Passing Strange begins previews on May 1 and runs through June 3.