Andy Polaris reviews a brash stage show
that follows a young American’s escape from his stifling
upbringing to a new world in Europe…
Passing Strange arrives at the Young Vic festooned with great reviews and prestigious awards including Best Book of A Musical Tony, Outstanding Musical in Drama Desk Awards, along with Outstanding Music and Lyrics. It has taken its time to arrive in Britain and has actually been filmed by director Spike Lee after a Broadway run in 2008. Here’s an original, bold, rock musical with a limited London run so, if you loved Rent and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, you’d better hotfoot to secure some tickets.
Opening on a spartan stage with a four-piece band, a mattress and duvet, it is intriguing to hear Iggy and the Stooges’ Dirt blaring out of the speakers as we take our seats. The scene is set by the Narrator (Giles Terera) portraying a splendidly sage troubadour who plays guitar and links the scenes in an engaging manner for the main characters, who include a youthful version of himself.
We are introduced to Youth (Keenan Munn-Francis), a slim young African American aspiring musician who feels stifled by the American dream despite living with his middle-class sartorially turned out Mother (Rachel Adedeji). The black church is omnipresent and is the arbiter of black bourgeois status but, despite her insistence that her reluctant son should attend, even she can’t face the bitchiness of the “Baptist Fashion Show”. Here we meet the rest of the talented acting ensemble who play the choir, Terry and Sherry and the teenage temptress Edwina.
The sin of the flesh is strong but soon fizzles flat when Youth finds himself falling in familiar territory and not living up to race expectations. You need to blacken up but not so much that you are unemployable. Edwina has a rigid set role for his future that includes a corporate job and a breakfast nook. He does seem to find a kindred spirit and mentor in the flamboyant Mr Franklin (Caleb Roberts), the closeted Reverend’s son and church choirmaster and organist. Away from the church along with Terry and Sherry, he regales us with tales of the magic of travel and possibilities especially in Europe, renowned as a haven for such legendary black creatives as Josephine Baker and James Baldwin who fled the racism of America where they were underappreciated. America has no time for freaky negroes, he laments as they smoke hashish under Californian starry skies.
Despite his lyrical praise, Mr Franklin has only ever chosen the path of procrastination. “Cowards have consequences,” he remarks to our slightly stoned protagonist. A short-lived garage band begins and disbands which along with the parental pulpit preaching triggers our hero not just to visit but decide to live in Europe and abandon his mother, the palm trees and the stifling conformity and low expectations of South Central.
The importance of living as an artist is the central theme of this autobiographical story, a black man’s perspective of self which sees a dramatic shift when landing in liberal Amsterdam in the post-punk era. “It may look like Sodom from top to bottom, a shopping mall of vice.”
However this is a two-way mirror and his hosts also have ideas of African Americans which can be equally as narrow as those he is attempting to escape. Do you sing blues or jazz? Amsterdam is one of the strongest songs where Youth meets his new family: Renata an abstract painter, Christophe a philosophy professor and part-time sex worker, Joop a libertine and Marianna (Nadia Violet Johnson) whose interests include white magic and with whom he has an affair. Offered The Keys to her place, his world expands and for once he feels he can be himself with his new-found family, happy in his own skin. We Just Had Sex could easily have fitted into the repertoire of Sally Bowles in Cabaret which is convenient as our intrepid musician frustrated by “paradise” moves on to seek new challenges in the city of Berlin.
The show cleverly plays up the activist art and pretentious performance art posturing of his new NowHaus commune with the stark in-your-face (almost literally) swagger of What’s Inside Is Just A Lie belted out by the Mohican-sporting Mr Venus. There are several other strong songs in the second half especially the satirical The Black One and haunting Listening Is Waiting. A carousel of characters are performed by the vibrant all-black cast of Caleb Roberts, Nadia Violet Johnson, Renée Lamb and David Albury, who all have dynamic voices.
Terera’s charismatic Narrator is the heart of the piece with a clear melodious voice that captures the changing moods of Youth through his voyage of self-exploration and discovery. It will certainly resonate with black creatives who are expected to stay in their lane especially when it comes to genres of music (we expect a Jay Z wannabee but not Joan Armatrading, that throws them for a loop). So if you’re in the mood for a witty uplifting night at the theatre here’s a play loaded with zingers and swipes at European sensibilities – Merci Beaucoup seen through a different lens – or alternatively seek out the Spike Lee film of the stage production with the original Broadway cast (which includes recently Oscar-nominated Colman Domingo), available on streaming platforms.
☐++++++☐++++++☐
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