Spike Lee’s Film PASSING STRANGE Comes To The Bay Area

Even as Berkeley Repertory Theatre scorches the stage with the world premiere of American Idiot, it welcomes the prodigal return of Passing Strange. The provocative rock musical that burst onto Broadway after being born at Berkeley Rep comes back to the Bay Area in a film by celebrated director Spike Lee.

Starting this Friday, the movie version of Passing Strange will play for one week only at two local Landmark Theatres: the Embarcadero Center Cinema in San Francisco and the Shattuck Cinemas in Berkeley, only two blocks from where the show began. Currently, Comcast subscribers can also watch the film on demand.

Passing Strange won a Tony Award, two Obie Awards, three Drama Desk Awards, four Audelco Awards, two Theatre World Awards, and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award.

It made its world premiere at Berkeley Rep in 2006 and transferred to an extended off-Broadway engagement at The Public Theater in 2007. It enjoyed a six-month Broadway run at the Belasco Theatre in 2008, produced by The Shubert Organization and Elizabeth Ireland McCann in association with Berkeley Rep and The Public.

Lee filmed Passing Strange with a live audience during two of the final performances. He also shot it twice without an audience so that cameras could access the stage. The resulting work unites revelatory theatre with superb filmmaking, raising the whole to a dizzying plateau of emotional engagement. It is a tour-de-force of creative collaboration that captures the show's originality and resonance, not to mention some of the most soulful songs and witty lyrics in recent memory. Climb on board and follow a young musician's journey - from '70s Los Angeles through free-loving Amsterdam to the anarchy of '80s Berlin - in his search to feel something Real.

The film has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the respected film-review website. Roger Ebert gives it four stars, calling it "one of Spike Lee's best films." A.O. Scott of the New York Times declares it "moving, thrilling, and new... I was blown away." "In every way a knockout," raves Rolling Stone - and the Onion A.V. Club proclaims it "god-damned transcendent, a near-religious experience."

The Embarcadero Center Cinema is located at 1 Embarcadero Center in San Francisco. The Shattuck Cinemas are located at 2230 Shattuck Ave in Downtown Berkeley. For schedule and ticket information, visit landmarktheatres.com.

See tomorrow's plays today at Berkeley Rep. Subscribe now for the 2009/10 Season, which features seven daring new shows: the world premiere of American Idiot from Green Day and Michael Mayer, the world premiere of Girlfriend from Todd Almond and Matthew Sweet, the world premiere of Concerning Strange Devices from the Distant West from Naomi Iizuka and Les Waters, the world premiere of The Wake from Lisa Kron and Leigh Silverman, the West Coast premiere of Tiny Kushner from Tony Kushner and Tony Taccone, and local debuts for Athol Fugard's Coming Home and Aurélia's Oratorio. For details, call (510) 647-2949 or toll-free at (888) 4-BRT-tix - or simply click berkeleyrep.org.

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