Photo by Jay Towns Photography
Is there any theatre in Chicago that puts on better small musicals than Theo Ubique? I don’t think I have ever seen a show there that didn’t move me in some significant way. I was certainly moved by their newest production, Passing Strange, a rock musical about a young Black man who discovers music while growing up in LA and then leaves his home to go to Europe to rebel against his mother and his church, find his sound, and locate what is Real. (That sounds less fun than this show really is; it can be very dramatic but the playwright, Stew, knows how to have fun as well and does so frequently.)
That’s a pretty heavy ask, but our hero, called only the Youth, pursues it with all of his energy, throwing himself completely into whatever he finds as he lives in Amsterdam (Act One) and then Berlin (Act Two). Michael Jones, whose journey to this show was somewhat less cumbersome—he’s a member of the ensemble of the Factory Theatre, just down Howard Street from Theo—portrays the Youth with an understanding that, although a young man’s pursuit of his dreams is a familiar plot dynamic, this particular young man is…well…not particularly likable. Basically, despite a loving mother who tries to provide him with whatever he needs, he is a sullen and morose kid. In fact, he takes “sullen and morose” to entirely new levels, to the point where I started wondering how the show could ever make me care about his story at all.
Fortunately, it does not have to.
The real heavy loads are carried here by the Narrator (Jordan DeBose), an older man tasked with the forbidding job of telling the tale of this boy. (Why he gets this job only becomes clear late in the play, but it is clear from the outset that the Narrator does understand the Youth’s shifting desires and his desperation, as well as the limited understanding of himself and his world inherent at his age.) In any case, DeBose, at times taking their mature, gravely rock and roll voice to places that you’d swear would leave it shredded and them unable to finish the night, let alone the run, gives the Narrator the kind of honest demeanor and sincerity—not to mention a sense of fun—that allows us to follow him through the morass of the Youth’s life and, if not really understand why this kid would take off from home for a dubious Hendrix-like growth experience in Europe, at least believe it.
His mother (warmly played by Jenece Upton) just wants him to understand her love for him but, like so many teens both real and fictional, he’s so full of anger that he simply can’t. He sees her ignoring his beliefs and goals and trying to foist her religion on him—Stew’s script has a lot of fun early on with the Baptist congregation he really doesn’t even try to fit into (unless you count sharing a joint with the young choir director, played by Michael Mejia).
When he gets to Amsterdam, the Youth almost immediately falls into a relationship with a girl named Marianna (Caitlin Dobbins), who offers him a place to stay almost as soon as he arrives. She is very supportive of his dreams and is pretty much the most “real” person he meets in Europe. She falls for him hard and for a time he is happy. After a lovely ballad about the keys she has given him (to her flat and to her heart), the show segues into a silly piece called “We Just Had Sex,” which is perhaps its one song designed just to be fun. (There are non-song comic bits, my favorite being one that makes fun of 1970s experimental European musical and cinematic styles, but most of the actual songs are more serious.) But the Youth finds that he can’t write angry songs when he is happy, so he leaves Marianne behind to move to Berlin.
Act Two in Berlin is wildly different from Act One, as 1970s Berlin was not the same as 1970s Amsterdam. Scenic Designer Sydney Lynne makes a few key changes and suddenly we are not in a warm and inviting place of peace and joy but in an industrial nightmare, unlike anything the Youth has ever known. (Elliot Sagay gets a nice showcase here.) But it is here that the main character comes into his own. Basically disowning his prior life, he pretends to be a street kid for the cred that will let him join a local artists’ house led by Chamaya Moody, where he finally starts writing and playing music that feels appropriate for someone actively searching for “what is real,” even though he had to live a lie to get there.
Director Tim Rhoze keeps the show moving along crisply and gives equal attention to each of the various segments of the story, all of which are needed for us to understand the Youth’s character as well as the show’s poignant ending. His Music Director, Dr. Michael McBride, in addition to priming the entire cast to sing the score perfectly, separates his four musicians by scattering them across Theo’s small stage, making Sound Designer Stefanie Senior’s job that much more important. (Both of them handle their respective challenges wonderfully, providing this show with the powerful sound it requires.)
Passing Strange is a lot more difficult and powerful than, say, Godspell, which Theo also produced this season, but that’s another reason to love this theatre: they are willing to take chances. You should too; even if you’ve never heard of this show, you should buy tickets and head up to Howard Street. You won’t be disappointed.
Passing Strange is playing at Theo Ubique, 71 Howard St, Evanston, until July 30. Tickets are available at Theo Ubique. For more Chicago reviews or show information, see chicagoonstage.com or theatreinchicago.com.