Passing Strange Live Recording Will Debut on iTunes; Track List Announced

By Adam Hetrick
May 12, 2008

The live recording of the new musical Passing Strange will be the first Broadway cast recording to be exclusively available on iTunes more than a month before it arrives in stores.

The recording of the new musical penned by Stew and Heidi Rodewald will be available on iTunes beginning May 27, over a month before its targeted July in-store arrival. An official in-store release date for the Ghostlight Records CD has not been announced.

The cast and musicians of the new rock musical recorded the album in a live recording session – with a packed audience of friends and fans – on the stage of the Belasco Theatre April 14.

Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records president Kurt Deutsch said in a statement, "We finished mastering the album yesterday, and wanted to get the music to fans as quickly as we could. With the technology that exists today, we're able to do that."

Deutsch and Bill Rosenfield serve as executive producers for the original cast recording, with Passing Strange songwriters Stew and Rodewald as the CD's producers.

The track list for Passing Strange follows:

"Prologue (We Might Play All Night)"
"Baptist Fashion Show"
"Church Blues Revelation/Freight Train"
"Arlington Hill"
"Sole Brother"
"Must Have Been High"
"Mom Song"
"Merci Beacoup, M. Godard"
"Amsterdam"
"Keys (Marianna)"
"Keys (It's Alright"
"We Just Had Sex"
"Stoned"
"Berlin: A Bloke Hole With Taxis"
"May Day (There's A Riot Goin' Down)"
"What's Inside Is Just A Lie/And Now I'm Ready to Explode"
"Identity"
"The Black One"
"Come Down Now"
"Youth's Unfinished Song"
"Work the Wound"
"Passing Phase"
"Cue Music"
"Love Like That"

In anticipation of Passing Strange's cast recording, Stew said in a statement, "A live recording session of Passing Strange will be a wildly unique event. More than just a live show document or a studio recording, we are aiming for a freaky hybrid of the two. The audience will be in on the process, witnessing it. Heidi Rodewald and I have always tried to bring the spontaneity of live performance into our studio recordings. But now, through the magic of theatre, the studio is coming to the Belasco."

Passing Strange features book and lyrics by Stew and music by Stew and his longtime musical partner Heidi Rodewald of The Negro Problem.

The musical – which opened on Broadway Feb. 28 following a critically lauded run at the Public Theater last summer – features the original Public cast, including Stew, de'Adre Aziza, Daniel Breaker, Eisa Davis, Colman Domingo, Chad Goodridge and Rebecca Naomi Jones.

Passing Strange co-author Rodewald heads an onstage band that features Stew as well as Jon Spurney, Christian Cassan and Christian Gibbs.

The semi-autobiographical musical incorporates elements of Stew's life to tell the story of a young black bohemian who leaves behind his middle-class, church-ruled upbringing in Los Angeles to travel abroad in search of his artistic and personal identity.

Passing Strange features choreography by Karole Armitage, scenic design by David Korins, costume design by Elizabeth Hope Clancy and lighting design by Kevin Adams.

Passing Strange's Broadway venture is produced by the Shubert Organization, Inc., Elizabeth Ireland McCann and the Public Theater.

Tickets are available by calling (212) 239-6200 or by visiting www.TeleCharge.com. The Belasco Theatre is located at 111 West 44th Street in Manhattan.