July 7, 2008
Spike Lee Directing Passing Strange Flick
We ran into Passing Strange co-creator Heidi Rodewald at Two Boots in the West Village over the weekend, and she confirmed news that Spike Lee will be directing a film version of the critically acclaimed but box office-challenged rock musical. Lee will film the show three times this month for cable TV; twice with audiences and once without. At Two Boots, Rodewald summed up Passing Strange’s difficulty selling tickets on Broadway by paraphrasing an old producers’ maxim: “We made the mistake of making art.”
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I truly believe that Passing Strange would have been much better received by the public as an off-broadway show. People go to a Broadway show with expectations and Passing Strange doesn't fill them. The theater seems way too big for Passing Strange, for me it swallowed the production up, a more intimate setting would go a long way to remedy this. Additionally, let's face it, Broadway predominately caters to tourists and Passing Strange does not have any of the Pomp and Circumstance that Broadway Theatre goers are expecting when they go to a Broadway Show.
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Hmmm, should be interesting to see how Lee will work his special brand of racism into the "Passing Strange" plot.
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"We made the mistake of making art.”
Spoken like a true whiney, artsy-fartsy, elitist snob.
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It's, it's, just that the public are just too stupid to know what a wonderful genius and gift to humanity that I truly am!
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I'm sorry, I really wanted to like Passing Strange, but it felt like a Philosopy 101 class and just wasn't very good. Don't believe the hype.