Also from the annals of proto-hipster Silverlake music scene lore
paperhaus June 11th, 2008
Stew’s play, the semi-autobiographical Passing Strange, is up for seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The real bigtime Tony Awards for Broadway shows. The real bigtime humdinger of them all, Best Musical.
And that would be Stew (aka Mark Stewart) who led The Negro Problem, a band that was never as punk as its name might have you believe. In fact, it was pretty poppy. Some called it psychedelic pop. Others called Stew a Black Bacharach, which has a nice kind of rhythm. Anyway, The Negro Problem was never an outstanding band, although it had its fans, and most everyone praised Stew’s talents. But the band was too dorky — it was compared to Randy Newman and to Hootie & the Blowfish — with songs too round and pretty and polished to be played in rock clubs full of beer and angst.
Where they belonged, apparently, was Broadway. Stew’s Passing Strange has now won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for Best Musical, the Drama Desk Award for Best Musical, the Obie for Best Musical. And now all these Tony nominations — Stew has tied a record for nominations in a single year. Holy moley.
More literary stuff coming, after I get these LA flashbacks out of the way.