Notes of a Native Song
Stew & Heidi
and The Negro Problem
JANUARY 31 – FEBRUARY 1,2020 | 8 PM
*Please note that all tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable.
About
The Tony and Obie Award-winning creators of Broadway hit Passing Strange reunite for their acclaimed theatrical song cycle Notes of a Native Song. Named for James Baldwin’s 1955 collection of essays on being Black in America, Notes of a Native Son, the concert explores the civil rights activist and writer’s power and artistry through a rapturous mix of rock, jazz, and spoken word.
Baldwin, a Black expatriate who sought racial equity in Europe in the face of blatant American racism before the civil rights movement, is renowned for his commentary on the Black experience in America. Stew, Heidi, and their band The Negro Problem examine the enduring relevance of Baldwin’s words and life through the lens of today’s social and political climate.
This production includes explicit language.
Press
“Remarkably thought-provoking”
— The San Francisco Chronicle
“Defies genres and expectations”
— The New York Times
“I was blown away by what I saw.”
— Spike Lee on Passing Strange
About Stew
Co-Composer/Writer/Guitar/Vocals
Stew is an American singer-songwriter, playwright, and performance artist from Los Angeles, Calif. He formed a four-piece band called The Negro Problem, which in 1995 released a box set collection of singles including an innovative cover of “MacArthur Park” and a multi-part pop operetta entitled “Miss Jones”. He later went on to release albums under his own name, and won the Tony and Obie Awards for his groundbreaking, semi-autobiographical Broadway hit Passing Strange. Additional works include Notes of a Native Song (Spring 2015 Harlem Stage), Wagner, Max! Wagner! (Fall 2015 Kennedy Center), The Total Bent (Public Theater 2016), Making It (Spring 2010 St. Anne’s Warehouse), Brooklyn Omnibus (Fall 2010 Brooklyn Academy of Music), Resurrection City (2016 Studio Theatre), and Chicago Omnibus (Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago 2012). His film work includes Spike Lee’s Passing Strange.
About Heidi Rodewald
Co-Composer/Bass/Guitars/Moog Synthesizer
Heidi Rodewald is the Tony Award-nominated, Obie Award-winning co-composer of the musical Passing Strange. She has also composed music for Karen Kandel’s Portraits: Night and Day (2004); Brides of the Moon by The Five Lesbian Brothers (2010); and co-composed music for Shakespeare’s Othello, Much Ado About Nothing, and Romeo and Juliet (2010–12). Rodewald joined the band The Negro Problem in 1997, where she began a longtime collaboration with Stew—as a co-composer, producer, arranger, and performer. She is the co-composer of the musical Family Album, Notes of a Native Song, The Total Bent, and Wagner, Max! Wagner!, Another Kind of Love, and The Good Swimmer. She has also scored her first film, I Dream Too Much, (2015 SXSW).
Thank You to Our Season Sponsors
