Bailiwick takes us on a sublime musical journey
Bailiwick Chicago presents |
Passing Strange |
Written by Stew and Heidi Rodewald Directed by Lili-Anne Brown at Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, 777 N. Green (map) through May 29 | tickets: $25-$35 | more info |
Reviewed by Lawrence Bommer
Passing Strange is a supple title for this coming-of-age rock/soul musical/concert. It refers to how life looks to this young black man from Los Angeles–and to how he moves through it as his hero journey takes him to Amsterdam, Berlin and back home. With one of the richest scores this entertainment genre ever needed and a Midwest premiere by Bailiwick Chicago that’s nothing short of terrific, “Passing Strange” is 150 minutes of smart showbiz. Until now I never knew how much a record album could resemble a family album—until it’s, as the British say, a distinction without a difference.
It’s also a very specific journey. It begins in 1976 and ends in the early 80s with the protagonist still only 22. Narrating it with a passion to equal the events is Jayson “JC” Brooks, noted for his Coalhouse Walker in Porchlight’s Ragtime. Known simply as Youth (galvanic Steven Perkins), the seeker is first seen trying out and rejecting religions, to the confusion of his tough-loving, church-going mother (a remarkable LaNisa Frederick), who indulges in her own less-than-sacred “Baptist Fashion Show.” The “call and response” fervor of the revival meetings that Youth attends (“Church Blues Revelation/Music Is the Freight Train in Which God Travels”) becomes a style, if not a subject, that he can share in his own songs. But the youth choir is no inspiration, neither is the girlfriend who rejects him because he’s not black enough.
Influenced by the American-fleeing James Baldwin, Youth journeys to Amsterdam to join the reefer rebels at the Headquarters Café Song, find inspiration with the comforting Marianna (Sharriese Hamilton) who gives him her “Keys,” and get stoned in this punk-rock “Paradise.” But it’s all too perfect. There’s no friction to generate the songs expected from an ex-pat alien on the lam from L.A.
This “fiery pilgrim” finally ends up in still-Communist Berlin where Youth gets sucked into the righteously rebellious performance-art scene. There he cultivates his angry “Negritude” and sticks out as “The Black One,” savoring his outsider identity as he joins a commune of agitprop-crazy Reds. (Their cruel Cold War concept is that “What is inside is just a lie,” that we’re just the creatures of capitalism unless we free ourselves through anti-social theatrics.)
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But one lonely Christmastide, the Youth discovers that even radicals have families to which they return. Perhaps he should go back too. But his mother’s death makes the prodigal’s return to L.A. a bittersweet homecoming (“Passing Phase”). So the Youth’s perpetual tug of war between life and art finally ends in a sardonic thought: “Life is a mess that only art can fix.” Better of “Work the Wound.”
Youth’s quest inevitably conjures up images of Beat Poets on the road, Kerouac-style, as they try by process of elimination to find out what they’re not. Then can come the slow creative accretion that forges their art. It’s never been so eloquent however, with this Tony Award-winning book by Stew (who played the original Narrator) and his cunning, memorable songs (co-written with Heidi Rodewald in collaboration with Annie Dorsen). James Morehad music directs the 22 numbers with a singular love for every note. The Bailiwick ensemble couldn’t be tighter or truer to this multi-textured material.
Rating: ★★★★ |
All photos by Jay Kennedy, © 2011
Filed under: 2011 Reviews, Bailiwick Chicago, Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, Lawrence Bommer, Musical | Tagged: Aaron Holland, Alissa Norby, Annie Dorsen, Bailiwck Chicago, Ben Taylor, Billy Bungeroth, Blake Russell, Chicago Center for the Performing Arts, Daniel Riley, David Keller, Eric Martin, Greg Hofmann, Heather Stuck, Heidi Rodewald, James Morehead, Jayson Brooks, Jayson JC Brooks, JC Brooks, Jimmy Morehead, John Holt, Jonathan Verge, Julie Burt Nichols, Kate Garassino, Katie Faltus, Kevin Marks, Kevin Mayes, Kyle Branzel, LaNisa Frederick, Lawrence Bommer, Lili-Anne Brown, Matt Guthier, Matthew Guthier, Osiris Khepera, Passing Strange, Patrick Bley, Rachel Haile, Sharriese Hamilton, Steven Perkins, Stew, Stew and Heidi Rodewald, Stew Passing Strange, Varris Holmes, Whitney White | 1 Comment »