Spike Lee and Stew team up for a powerful musical brew in 'Passing Strange: The Movie'

Stew, Heidi Rodewald and Spike Lee

The Broadway musical “Passing Strange” may have closed, but the stage production has been immortalized in the appropriately titled documentary “Passing Strange: The Movie,” directed by Spike Lee. “Passing Strange” is a semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story, based on the life of musician Stew, who wrote the musical’s lyrics and book. Stew (whose real name is Mark Stewart) co-wrote the music and orchestrations with Heidi Rodewald, his former significant other. After a limited release in theaters, “Passing Strange: The Movie” will be televised on PBS in 2010.

Stew won the 2008 Tony Award for best book of a musical for “Passing Strange,” in which he serves as a narrator telling the story of a young man from Los Angeles who travels to Europe to be a free spirit — much to the disappointment of his religious mother. I recently sat down with Lee, Stew and Rodewald at the New York City press junket for “Passing Strange: The Movie,” and they shared behind-the-scenes stories about making the documentary.

How would you describe the experience of seeing "Passing Strange" onstage versus seeing it as a movie?

Stew: That’s the advantage of films: the closeup. Oddly enough, when you’re in theater, you’re watching actual human beings. In film, you get to see close-ups. The close-ups are what we’re seeing right now. So in some ways, the cinema is more like real life than theater. But what do we really want, ultimately, but to get a look at people’s faces and get a reaction? In theater, if you’re in row four, that’s not happening.

Stew in "Passing Strange: The Movie"

Was the movie entirely Spike’s vision or did any of the people involved in the "Passing Strange" have any say in how the movie was made?

Lee: It was just a matter of seeing the show a lot of times, knowing the show and knowing where the camera had to be at crucial moments. In fact, we filmed the last three performances: There was a Saturday matinee, Saturday evening … and a Sunday matinee. And in between the two shows on Saturday, we watched a whole matinee. Matty Libatique, the great cinematographer, and I and the [camera] operators watched it all together and said, "We missed some sh*t! We gotta get it!" We had monitors in the basement. This was taped.

Stew: There were about 10 monitors, and we were all in this sweaty room that they made for us to watch … and all the names had names from different cameramen. And he [Spike Lee] was screaming (in a very nice, funny way), "Frank, you’ve got to pull back next time! Joey, what is that? Who told you to shoot like that" He was watching all of the screens at once. We never stopped and rewound. He was just yelling out and Matty was up front. And we were the actors in the van, looking around and [thinking], "How did they do this? How does he watch 12 [monitors] at one time?" They went over the entire film, basically, and then we just shot it again. We just felt like we were in good hands.

What were the logistics of getting the audience members to be in the movie?

Lee: Some were recruited; some had bought tickets already. When we do big events like you just hold up "You’re being taped." They had to sign a general waiver.

Can you talk about your decision to shoot in high-definition video instead of film?

Lee: We couldn’t afford to shoot [using] film. Live performances, a lot of times they get burnt with film, because at the right moment, you have a magazine change. And we had to look at the show between the break of the Saturday matinee and the Saturday evening show. And we just barely made it.

Matty and I talked about it. We just wanted to enhance the enjoyment of the audience members. And like Stew said, we were doing close-ups that really only people in the first row can see.

If money weren’t an issue, would you have shot "Passing Strange" on film?

Lee: No.

How many times did you have to see the show before you felt you knew it and knew what to shoot?

Lee: I think I had seen the show, combined with the Public [Theatre], about 10 times. But also the camera operators — everybody who was shooting — saw it at least once. You have to be familiar with what you’re doing. I think it would be a disservice to all the hard work they did if you people just come up and get behind the camera and not knowing what the subject matter is.

Spike Lee at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival

Spike, "Passing Strange" was semi-autobiographical, just like your 1994 film "Crooklyn" was. Did that influence why you became involved in doing a "Passing Strange" documentary?

Lee: I wasn’t thinking about my film. I was thinking about my own personal experience. "Crooklyn" is semi-autobiographical. Stew and I — I’m a little older than him, but we’re still [from] the same era. He was growing up in South Central L.A. I was growing up in Brooklyn. I lost my mother when I was in college.

I just loved their work in general. The story, the whole expatriate thing, the music, the songs these guys wrote. I keep saying that it’s a giant piece of work.

Stew: ["Crooklyn"] is the only movie — [he says to Lee] I never told you this — that I really can’t get through. It’s the only film I’ve ever seen in my entire life where I actually had to stop close to the end and kind of like, "I’ll get back to it."

Why?

Stew: Because it’s the same thing that he saw in ["Passing Strange"], I see in that film. It’s so close to home, particularly in that film, because he pulls up things like TV commercials from the "Soul Train" era of the ‘70s. It takes you on a visceral, unconscious level. Like seeing "The Partridge Family" in a black home. That’s my whole story.

Lee: Like "The Partridge Family." [He laughs.]

Stew: That’s my whole story!

Lee: Black people watched "The Partridge Family."

Stew: Exactly!

Lee: And "The Brady Bunch"!

Stew: And that whole cauldron that he set up in there. That’s the only film [of Lee’s] where I have to stop watching it.

Stew and Daniel Breaker in "Passing Strange: The Movie"

"Passing Strange" is about looking back on Stew’s life, and the 20th anniversary of Spike Lee’s "Do the Right Thing" movie was this year. If you could both go back in time and say anything to the person you were 20 years ago, what would it be?

Stew: I would say, "Spike Lee’s going to make a movie of your play." That’s why I have a daughter. I get to talk to a 17-year-old about my life. I don’t know what I would say. I wouldn’t tell myself necessarily to do anything differently. It’s very difficult to teach a 17-year-old or a 19-year-old, "You’ve got to see your grandmother."

Lee: But in your play, you are talking to yourself! As the narrator you are talk to yourself as a youth. [Lee and Stew laugh.]

Stew: I guess you’re right. My daughter’s 17, and she wants to be an artist, and you just want to grab them and say, "Remember all these things. These people [your elders] are important!" But part of being 17 is that you don’t know. You want to hang out with that friend that you’re not even going to know in six months.

You know the beauty of being a dad? I can look at her and say, "This is your first boyfriend. Your first!"

Lee: That can be a nightmare, too. [He laughs.]

Stew: That’s why you make art, that’s why you make "Crooklyn," that’s why you make "Passing Strange" … to say, "Hey, look! Here’s what it used to be. Here’s what we missed." You can’t make a 17-year-old into being what you want them to be. They’re not an adult. They’re not close to mortality and all those kinds of things. You just make a play, and you hope for the best.

Lee: It’s real hard for me to answer a hypothetical question like that, because I didn’t write a play where I talked to myself back then. [Stew laughs.] I was very lucky, because every time I was about to make a big misstep … at the time it would happen, I would be mad. And then I later revealed to myself that if I went that way, not a good thing. Someone has looked out for me.

Stew in "Passing Strange: The Movie"

Stew and Heidi, how did seeing yourselves on the big screen affect you?

Rodewald: I hate seeing myself. It’s horrible. I think I’m moving around, and I’m not. I’m just sitting there. Spike, I’m sure, was really frustrated with this. There are actually only two shots of me moving my body. [Stew laughs.] But in my mind, I’m moving around a lot … But that’s not what this whole thing is about. I’m not looking at myself … I’m just looking at this [movie] … through Spike’s eyes.

Did you see things in a way you hadn’t thought of before that you might want to do if you make another movie?

Stew: No, because I think the thing with both of us is that we [Heidi and I] have been doing this for a while now. I think if we were both 22, we’d be analyzing to make corrections. "Oh, I think I’ll wear green." I know my guy in Harlem to go to to get my goatee to look like it does now. It’s real easy. You got into these bourgie black Harlem salons and you go, "I’m about to be in a Spike Lee movie," and suddenly the whole salon goes [he makes a motor revving up sound] and they surround you … and you come home looking great. Nothing changed. We were already comfortable with ourselves.

Spike Lee at the Museo de Bellas Artes in Caracas, Venezuela, in July 2009

How did you handle any changes that Spike made in how the play was directed for the movie?

Stew: Let me speak, because [Spike Lee] has been very humble about this. I was definitely directed in a very particular area, because there’s a moment where I get to get to be with the audience, and kind of get to seeing the audience during the "that’s all right" section, and that’s when the audience really gets pumped up. He [Spike Lee] went to my dressing room the morning of … the shooting. The thing is, nobody — including the director of the play — had ever really directed me, especially in my zone.

And my zone is when I’m not doing the play anymore and I’m dealing with my crowd. I’d been doing this for a very long time, and nobody had dared tell me anything about when I’m in my zone. And I do a pretty good job about getting people riled up. But he said, "We need them on their feet. This is the shot I need."

And we had a competition about my influences … So if you look at the film, you’ll see magic markers — which he said wouldn’t show up — where I’m trying to read the things that he said ... I got all these notes from him that morning. And to me, it was kind of a moment of truth, because he was asking me to do something I had never done in tow years f eight shows a week. But it was a challenge? And what would’ve happened if it wouldn’t have worked with the cameras rolling? It would’ve been embarrassing.

But it did work.

Stew: Totally!

You say in "Passing Strange" that when we are in the presences of art, we are talking the cure. Can you elaborate?

Stew: Art is like religion, in that it offers a critique of society as we know it. There wouldn’t be a need to go to church, there wouldn’t be a need to look at art if we didn’t want to get a different perspective. Art and religion are supposed to say, "The status quo is not enough. I want to get another perspective on this." Am I right?

Lee: You’re right.

Stew: So it’s like, "This isn’t working for me. I need to see somebody else’s vision of how this world can be and what’s wrong with this world and what’s right with it." So that’s we go to movies. That’s why we read books. We want to see what somebody else is thinking. "Tell me about this world we’re struggling with." So that’s what I mean by the cure. We’re looking for something else.

Spike Lee at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival

Spike, why did you decide to film a documentary of the "Passing Strange" stage production instead of doing a narrative feature film based on the play’s story?

Lee: I saw [the "Passing Strange" stage production] twice at the Public [Theatre], and I thought, "How would I do this as a film?" And the first thing is aid was, "I don’t know if you could get in film using Negroes to play Dutch people. That’s not going to work." I had someone from Imagine [Entertainment] — I had recently done "Inside Man" — Brian Grazer and Ron Howard, they own Imagine, but they weren’t really feeling it, the option to make the play [into] a film.

So then it went away and ["Passing Strange"] went to Broadway. And the thing that was troubling to me is that … stuff is based on getting awards. With "Passing Strange," it was like, "We’re struggling at the box office, so we really need to win a whole bunch of Tonys to keep this thing going." And when they didn’t win those whole bunch of Tonys, it’s not going to be much longer [before "Passing Strange" closes]. And that’s when Steve Klein, one of the producers, approached me about making sure this thing will live on forever. And that’s when we filmed the last three performances.

Spike, do you see yourself writing a play?

Lee: My wife told me a long time ago that "Do the Right Thing" should be made into a musical. It’s something we’ve talked about.

Spike Lee at a June 2009 Q&A discussion about "Do the Right Thing" in New York City

Spike, do you see a difference between directing movie actors and theater actors?

Lee: Annie Dorsen [the director of the stage production of "Passing Strange"] had done a great job. She’d been with these guys and they had done it in Berkeley [in California] and done it downtown and done it on Broadway. So it was set in place. There was a couple of things we had done structurally [differently], but not as far as directing actors.

Were any of the theater actors you worked with too precious or have a diva attitude about their work?

Lee: I didn’t see it. I didn’t see any of that. They worked hard. We did the final Saturday, we did matinee, evening. We came back then and shot the final show, which was the Sunday matinee. And then we came back the next day after the show had closed, and then shot without an audience all the way through. So people’s voices were shot at the end.

Stew: I just want to say that the distinct advantage of us doing this is that he caught us at a time when we were like a really well-oiled machine.

Lee: Exactly.

Stew: He also walked into my dressing room and said, "Do you want to see the movie?" I said, "What do you mean?" And he [brought out] a camera and showed me all these angles. And I was like, "Wow, I’ve never seen that movie before. This is the movie I’m about to step into." It was kind of like the Lakers on Magic Johnson day, and all you had to do was run these plays … and we will win. And that’s what we did: We ran our plays.

And I can’t emphasize enough that these actors [in "Passing Strange"] knew that the next 10 things they might be in were not going to speak to their souls. This was every actor on that stage’s story. This was every band member in that [orchestra] pit’s story. So they knew they knew that this might be it, in terms of the time in their lives when they could give their entire souls to a story that they knew and felt and had lived in every line.

They all had family. They all had church issues. They all had sexuality issues. They all had vocational issues [about] "Who are you going to be?" "What? You want to be an actor? That’s as crazy as saying you want to be a musician. Crazier, in some ways. At least as a musician, you can sit in a corner and make a quarter. As an actor, what are you going to do?"

So I’m just saying, for them, the reasons to me why their performances were so intense were that they were living this. This was really their story. I think we got lucky.

Rodewald: I think it was very different from a lot of the plays … on Broadway.

Stew, Heidi Rodewald and Spike Lee at the New York City press junket for "Passing Strange: The Movie"

What’s next for you?

Stew: I’m making a record. We’re working on two theater pieces: one at the Public and one a St. Ann’s Warehouse [in Brooklyn]. [Heidi] and I will be doing a bunch of concerts next year.

Spike, how do you see "Passing Strange" in relation to your other movies?

Lee: It’s part of my body of work

Stew: Somewhere between "Bamboozled" and "Kings of Comedy?" [They laugh.]

Did anyone want to recast "Passing Strange"?

Stew: Oh, I was going to tell you. When we first went to Broadway and we had our meeting at a table about eight times as long as this one, we sat down at this table and the very first question out of the Broadway producer’s mouth was, "So, are we planning on keeping the cast?"

It was phrased in a very sort of balanced way. And we said, "Yes." And then there was this silence, this 10-to-15 second silence, which you could just hear the wheels rolling and you could see everybody sort of calculating who might be able to play the mom. You know what I mean? And then you know what though? In total respect to them, they let it go; there was never a thought or a word spoken after that 10 seconds of silence. But you know they were thinking about who they could put as the mom.

Stew, what will your next album sound like?

Stew: I’m so bad at describing music. It’s going to be very spare and kind of skeletal, compared to "Passing Strange" … Not acoustic, but very unadorned … It’s rock music.