The 53rd annual Village Voice Obie Awards, which honor the best Off-Broadway fare for the previous year, named “Passing Strange” best new theater piece on Monday. The innovative and deeply personal rock musical has since moved to Broadway, where it has been picking up momentum for next month’s Tony Awards.
The musical, a 1970s coming-of age tale about a nomadic young artist (based on Stew, who narrates and plays an older version of himself in the musical), bowed last year at Off-Broadway’s Public Theater. It transferred to a Broadway theater in February, and thus is elegible for both Obie and Tony awards.
The Drama Desk named “Passing Strange” best musical on Sunday night, as did the New York Drama Critics Circle last week. Its stiffest competition for a Tony Award on June 15 is expected to come from the similarly innovative Latino rock musical, “In the Heights.”
“Passing Strange,” co-created by Stew and Heidi Rodewald, also won for ensemble acting, and “Adding Machine” won three awards, for director (David Cromer), performer (Joel Hatch) and design (set designer Takeshi Kata, light designer Keith Parham).
“Adding Machine” is an odd musical adaptation of Elmer Rice’s 1923 expressionist masterpiece about Mr. Zero, a cog in the machine of American business who, when replaced by an adding machine, exacts his revenge by murdering his boss. The 90-minute musical follows him through life, death and an afterlife romance in the Elysian Fields.
The awards are determined by a committee chaired by Village Voice critic Michael Feingold.
All the winners
PLAYWRITING:
Horton Foote – “Dividing The Estate”
David Henry Hwang – “Yellow Face”
DIRECTION:
Krzysztof Warlikowski – “Krum”
David Cromer – “Adding Machine”
PERFORMANCE:
LisaGay Hamilton – “The Ohio State Murders”
Kate Mulgrew – “Iphigenia 2.0”
Francis Jue – “Yellow Face”
Rebecca Wisocky – “Amazons and Their Men”
Joel Hatch – “Adding Machine”
Heidi Schreck – “Drum of the Waves of Horikawa”
Veanne Cox – Sustained Excellence of Performance
Sean McNall – Sustained Excellence of Performance
ENSEMBLE
“Passing Strange” – De’Adre Aziza, Daniel Breaker, Eisa Davis, Colman Domingo, Chad Goodridge, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Stew
DESIGN:
Takeshi Kata, set; Keith Parham, lighting design (“Adding Machine”)
Peter Ksander, scenic design (“Untitled Mars (This Title May Change)”)
Ben Katchor, drawings; John Findlay & Jeff Sugg, set & srojection; Russell H. Champa, lighting design (“The Slug Bearers Of Kayrol Island”)
Jane Greenwood – Sustained Excellence of Costume Design
David Zinn – Sustained Excellence of Costume and Set Design
SPECIAL CITATIONS:
Nature Theater of Oklahoma (“No Dice”)
David Greenspan (“The Argument”)
BEST NEW THEATER PIECE: $1,000
Stew, Heidi Rodewald, Annie Dorsen (“Passing Strange”)
THE ROSS WETZSTEON AWARD: $2,000
Cherry Lane Theatre Mentor Project
LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Adrienne Kennedy
