Passing Strange Pulls Up to Pasadena: The Cult Rock Musical Returns Nearly 20 Years Later

A Different Kind of Arrival

Passing Strange is finally touching down in L.A., and it's wild to think about how much has changed since that Tony-winning 2007 run on Broadway. Creators Stew and Heidi Rodewald are bringing their rock musical to the Pasadena Playhouse—a show that wasn't just ahead of its time, it was operating on a whole different wavelength from what people expected a Broadway musical to be.

That original run wasn't just successful. It swept—Tonys, Drama Desk Awards, New York Drama Critics' Circle recognition. The kind of clean sweep that tells you the theater world recognized something special happened. A rock musical that actually had something to say, built on a real story, with real characters instead of just spectacle and sentiment.

Almost two decades later, the landscape of what works in theater has shifted, but Passing Strange still stands apart. It's the kind of show that didn't need to wait for the world to catch up—it just needed the right moment to resurface and remind people why it mattered in the first place. Rodewald and Stew returning to direct means this isn't a nostalgia trip. It's a reclamation.

The Pasadena Playhouse run is a chance to see what a truly original vision looks like when it gets a second wind.

Read the full story at Variety → https://variety.com/2026/legit/news/passing-strange-pasadena-playhouse-stew-heidi-interview-1236942647/