Broadway Breakdown – “PASSING STRANGE w/ Marcus Scott”

Podcast: Broadway Breakdown
Host: Matt Koplik
Guest: Marcus Scott (playwright, journalist)
Date: November 17, 2022

Episode Overview

In this episode, Matt Koplik welcomes playwright and journalist Marcus Scott to discuss the legacy and brilliance of Passing Strange, the boundary-breaking rock musical by Stew and Heidi Rodewald. Matt and Marcus dive deep into the show’s history, themes, influence on Broadway, and its enduring resonance for Black artists and audiences. The conversation is frank, passionate, and laced with both humor and emotion, as they unpack what makes Passing Strange “the perfect show.”

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Personal Histories with Passing Strange

• Marcus Scott encountered the show during grad school at NYU, introduced by Max Vernon. The film adaptation, released not long after the Broadway production, became a creative “homing missile” for Marcus:

  "That was the show that kind of really cracked me open as an interval theater writer... It's smart, it's creative, it's poetic. It has an effervescence... it's the perfect show." (03:25)

• Matt Koplik first saw a rehearsal at The Public during a teen critics group led by Aisha Davis (who plays Mother in the show) but missed the Public run—opting for a Spring Awakening open call instead. He later attended on Broadway and became a lifelong fan. Matt still rues its lack of Tony nominations for direction:

  "I was devastated when they didn't get nominated for director... How is it that Annie did not get nominated?" (06:19)

2. What Passing Strange Is About

• Quintessential coming-of-age story about “Youth,” a Black teenager in 1970s Los Angeles venturing to Europe to become an artist and “find the real.”
• Dual narrative: The story is narrated by “Narrator” (Stew), blending biography, memory play, and staged rock concert.
• Explores themes of identity, code-switching, the search for authenticity, and the fraught mother-son dynamic:

  "It's a journey through the first 20, 25 years of his life as he goes from Los Angeles to Amsterdam and Berlin and his search to be an artist." (15:41)
  "There's a difference between reinventing yourself and lying about who you are, which is something youth keeps on gaslighting people about..." (17:18)

3. The Show’s Music, Structure, & Innovations

• Fuses gospel, jazz, punk rock, blues, Europop, alternative cabaret, and more, reflecting a spectrum of Black musical expression rarely showcased on Broadway.

• Marcus points out the crucial shift in showing Black sound onstage, moving from soul/Motown tropes to deeply rooted, boundary-pushing genres:

  "What this was doing was taking back rock and roll, I would argue, and saying, like, this is what we are." (33:55)

• Structure: Abstract and nonlinear, breaking with typical act/scene conventions, mirroring Passing Strange’s impact on Matt’s own podcast structure.

• The show’s numbers are tightly woven into the storytelling—hard to extract for cabaret, which Matt finds a mark of greatness.

4. Influence On Other Works

• Passing Strange’s legacy can be seen in shows like A Strange Loop (explicitly cited) and earlier in The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (Kirsten Childs), forming a lineage of formally adventurous, thematically complex “music theatre” by Black creators:

  "Bubbly Black Girl, Passing Strange, and A Strange Loop—they’re all form-expanding musicals…” (52:07)

• The influence stretches musically and structurally, with Passing Strange helping make space for other stories of Black interiority and self-creation.
• The show also helped broaden casting horizons. Notably, cast members like Rebecca Naomi Jones and Colman Domingo have gone on to wide-ranging careers in theater, television, and film.

5. Notable Songs & Segments

• Favorite numbers:
  • Marcus: "Baptist Fashion Show" – “a 10-minute show within a song,” capturing the spectacle and politics of Black church life. (40:36, 41:12)
  • Matt: “Merci Beaucoup” for its “vibe,” also notes the raucous energy of “Keys/It’s Alright” and the unique audience-actor interplay it fostered on Broadway.
  • Both adore “We Just Had Sex” for its comedy and subversion.
  • The structural centerpiece of “Memory Song,” where artifice falls away for raw emotional truth (63:30).
• Musical motifs around “love” and recurring themes (“the real”) enhance the show’s cohesive feel (115:32).

6. Racial Representation, Black Joy, and The Production’s Legacy

• Passing Strange foregrounds Black stories without trauma porn—its protagonist’s middle-class background is itself radical.
• The ensemble’s constant shifting of characters, ethnicities, and accents onstage pushes the boundaries of Black representation:

  "You're seeing in the show, you have characters playing church people…punk rockers…Europeans… Germans. The global consciousness of Black people changes." (117:50, 119:19)

• Joy and fun as revolutionary: “The ultimate revolt is joy and fun” (120:08) - the cast’s exuberance subverts dominant narratives of pain.
• The legacy lies not just in influence on shows like A Strange Loop but also in the wider casting and opportunity it opened for Black actors.

7. Passing Strange in Broadway Context

• Opened in a watershed year (2008) that included In the Heights, Gypsy, South Pacific, and more.
• Discussion of its relative commercial under-performance and lack of Tony wins, with both Matt and Marcus pointing to the audience's preference for more conventional musical fare, and the persistent “sugar in the coffee” expectation:

  "People want their sugar in their coffee, you know." (111:04)

• Notably, the Spike Lee film of its closing performances is lauded as perhaps the best-ever filming of a stage show (36:06), making the work accessible and capturing its electricity.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• Marcus on Passing Strange’s emotional resonance:

  "I remember the last time before watching it recently, I cried because I was like, oh my God, I'll never be able to write like this." (07:49)

• Matt on Youth's artistic journey:

  "He basically goes from being a teenage Mark Cohen to being a faux European Maureen is how I best would describe youth's, like, artistic journey." (18:11)

• On the show subverting archetypes:

  "What do you mean that you come from a comfortable home and that you've had... There's been no violence or sexual predator, predatorial ness or like, you haven't had any violence or drug problems?” (56:16)

• On the crowd energy during “It’s Alright”:

  "It was the first time I had been in a theater where the audience was just so jazzed about the vibes going on and Stu's energy…" (43:11)

• On the show’s legacy:

  "What it did, it really kind of opened up how black expression can be seen on stage, on the main stage. And so that will be its legacy." (119:19)

• On ‘Keys’ and the show’s celebration of trust and release:

  "A Black man who has never met this woman before… she just inherently trusts him to give him her keys… someone who doesn’t know me just gave me her keys." (121:50)

Important Timestamps

• 03:25 – Marcus describes how Passing Strange ignited him creatively.
• 06:19–07:49 – Matt and Marcus detail their first encounters and deep emotional connection to the show.
• 15:41 – Marcus gives a one-sentence elevator pitch for the show’s plot.
• 33:55 – Marcus on Passing Strange “taking back rock and roll.”
• 41:12, 46:36 – “Baptist Fashion Show” discussed as pivotal to both story and style.
• 52:07 – Placing Passing Strange in a lineage with Bubbly Black Girl… and A Strange Loop.
• 63:30 – The emotional core of “Memory Song” and the show’s raw final moments.
• 111:04 – Why audiences so often resist unvarnished truth in musicals.
• 119:19 – How the show changed representation and opportunities for Black artists on the main stage.

Additional Highlights

• Brief sidebars on cast members' post-show trajectories (Colman Domingo, Rebecca Naomi Jones, etc.) and the difficulty of reproducing the show without Stew as narrator.
• The show’s nonlinear development and extended gestation at Sundance and elsewhere (73:09).
• The complex Tony landscape in 2008 and the show’s underwhelming award performance (88:54).
• Discussion of the importance of joy, fluidity of identity, and the politics of trust and expression in the show.

Recommendations & Final Thoughts

Watch the Spike Lee film version (on YouTube) to experience the show’s full energy and nuance. The cast album, while full of great tracks, omits vital transitional material.

Passing Strange remains essential for:

• Its inventive musical-structural fusion
• Its unflinching, joyous portrayal of Black identity and artistry
• The palpable sense of revolution and release it gives both audience and performers

"The ultimate revolt is joy and fun." (120:08)

Featured Performer Close-Out: Rebecca Naomi Jones – “Ms. Rock Musical God herself.” (129:20)

For Newcomers

This episode offers an in-depth, heartfelt, and funny introduction to Passing Strange, complete with personal anecdotes, historical context, and critical analysis. The discussion is passionate, rigorously informed, and always entertaining—essential listening for theatre nerds, artists, and anyone interested in the ongoing evolution of Broadway.