As you might expect, I have some mixed emotions about the closing of this ground-breaking musical six days from now on Sunday, July 20. The news was reported last Thursday.
So that means if you haven’t seen it, time is of the essence. Discount tickets are available through the remainder of the run. Head over to BroadwayOffers.com and use code PSGNL29. This is one of those events that you should experience, ’cause who know when or if it’ll ever come around again. If you haven’t seen it, what proof do you still need? As you know from this space and others, the musical has won a bunch of prestigious awards including a Tony, Obies, Drama Desk, Audelco and many others. Everyone who I’ve admonished for not seeing it has come back blown away by it, and I hope plenty of people join that group this week. The other incentive–and I’m not sure is seats are still available–is that Spike Lee is confirmed to film the performance on July 19, so if you’re going that night,
What excited me so much about this play was that it is, quite frankly, a great example of the evolving Black imagination. As I’ve talked about here, it’s emblematic of the larger cultural shift taking place in this country. It fit the criteria critic and BRC co-founder laid out in the bio for The Family Stand and and what "Great Black Music performances used to do on the regular–make you think hard about the world and your own inner life while you had a stomp down, sweaty, good time in the process."
That is the legacy of "Passing Strange".
So, while I’m sad to see it go, I know that the work of Stew and Heidi’s work has become a reference point. More importantly, it’s become, I think, a standard of excellence, one that we should strive to not only achieve, but to surpass someday. And we can do it, if we’re men and women enough to step up and take the torch that’s now being passed.
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