Love what you do.I’m making a new record now too.Hope to groove with you one day soon Also, check my site at http://www.bobbihumphrey.net
Blessings,
Bobbi

As a long-time fan of TNP, I find it amazing and thrilling that an indie rocker made it all the way to Broadway. My wife and I got to see your show this spring and enjoyed it thoroughly, but I felt strangely restrained somehow when sitting in the audience. Broadway is still not a rock club, I guess. It took me a while to figure out that “Arlington Hill” predated PS (as did another song or tow, right?) - those songs stuck with me for days.

I’m listening to the cast album right now - ironic that it came out just as the show closed. I will be adding a number of songs to the rotation of my Live365 station because more people need to hear them. The songs stand both alone and together.

Sorry that PS couldn’t stick around but if there’s a DVD release, I’m buying it!

I look forward to your next musical move.

Thank you for everything so far,
Rob Galgano

Passing Strange WAS different from anything else on the stage.
If you, sir, knew anything about the history of Broadway musicals, you’d know that while perhaps not every show has shiny buttons/an uplifting first act closer/a happy ending, the concept of the “Broadway musical” is in nearly every show - there must be some variation on a theme of X/Y/Z. Perhaps that means jazz hands, perhaps that means a second act “showstopper” dance number. Even “Spring Awakening” - the only other new show to buck trends of musical convention - suffered from some of those themes. Stew and Heidi, by virtue of being theatrical “outsiders” to some extent, were able to create a show in their own image.
Shit, man - if you saw the show, you’d know exactly how they made fun of musicals within the show. This show was one of a kind - don’t mistake yourself by thinking it wasn’t.

Sad I couldn’t make it to the show. Patty and Kim gushed much love and appreciation about your show (listened to your records after and remembered old times - good times) anyway SO happy for your amazing road to the bright light. Have pic of you and Heidi on my photography website (hope that’s ok) have an old pic of you and Bebe from the same shoot too if you want me to send it to you (just email me). Anyway cheers and hope you come back to LA to visit and play. Say hi to Heidi for me!

xo,

b

MARY SAID:
I saw an interview recently where you said you’ve about 2 broadway musicals….and then you make a statement like that. You are one pretentious dude.

Dear Mary,
I guess I should be flattered that you even bother to notice such perceived inconsistencies in my statements. I hope you do the same with our politicians. For those are the guys to really watch.

Now hear me out: The number of musicals, broadway or otherwise, that I have seen was the topic of far too much interest on the part of journalists interviewing me when PS was running. Early on, during rehearsals i think, I made some frank statements about the musicals I had seen that my producers had given me free tix to. My statements reached a few NY newspapers and my producers freaked. They explained to me that on broadway one didn’t diss other shows publicly. They kindly and respectfully asked me to refrain from doing so. I respected the protocol and began dancing around the issue every time the topic came up. And it came up ALL THE TIME because journos wanted me to diss shows cuz it made good copy. So i began saying publicly that i had seen far less shows than I had really seen. Because then i only had to talk about the ones I liked: Chicago and…can’t even remember what else. Anyway, I couldn’t publicly say I had seen (and sometimes walked out in the middle of) 5 to 7 musicals. That would have offended people.

Now that said, I have seen nearly every big important film version of the great broadway musicals and I am familiar with the story lines…and i can tell you that my statement you quoted is totally true. There is nothing in Phantom or Oklahoma
or Chorus Line that makes us think “What the hell is going on here? Where am I? Who are these people?” Most americans aren’t familiar with german anarchists, amsterdam hash bars, or black american women who speak two distinctly different types of english. I could name 30 other things that PS has in it that weren’t typical of a broadway musical. Like Black people not being stereotyped or comic relief, for instance. But i digress.

Also, it wouldn’t take a theater expert to make the statement i made. Broadway is about selling tons of tickets. It’s mass culture entertainment. You don’t make mass culture by being even slightly complex. Otherwise Sondheim would, as he deserves to be, as or more popular than Lloyd Webber.

But i suspect your real reason for trying to “trip me up” is that like some
broadway fans i have encountered you are
disturbed and/or insulted by my attitude
towards the broadway culture. If this is the case with you, and i apologize if it is not, please note that I was as disturbed by many aspects of broadway culture as you have been by my “pretentious” statements.
/s

I saw an interview recently where you said you’ve about 2 broadway musicals….and then you make a statement like that. You are one pretentious dude.

Thanks,
Barry