History Theatre / PassingStrange

This show contains examples of:

* ButNotTooBlack - Partially inverted in-show; Edwina wants Youth to blacken up a bit, but not so much that he'll "become unhirable."

* BlackAndNerdy - Youth

* AngryBlackMan - Subverted and played with all day long. The Youth is an AngryBlackMan, but he's angry at the upper black middle class society that has "oppressed" him. (He's been oppressed but not to the extreme that he imagines.) He also masquerades as an AngryBlackMan instead of who he truly is - artistic, BlackAndNerdy, to stay at Nowhaus, a halfway house of socially conscious artists who think he's just an "American Pop Song Maker".

* AngryBlackMan - Youth, in his way.

** The Nowhaus group also indulges in fourth wall breaking, particularly when they critique Marianna's song from earlier in the show

* TearJerker - Youth and Mother's last conversation after she [[spoiler: dies and comes back to comfort [[TheNarrator Stew]] the grown up version of the Youth]]

* TrueArtIsAngsty - The very reason the Youth continues on his journey through Europe after arriving in Amsterdam. [[spoiler: He's so content in "Paradise" that he can't write songs because he has nothing to complain about.]]
* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible - The Nowhaus scene - full of performance art, screaming, businessman porn, and riot caberets.

** The Nowhaus group also indulges in fourth wall breaking, particularly when they critique Marianna's song from earlier in the show.

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome - "Yeah, it's all right!"
* CrowningMomentOfFunny - Oh so many...
** "She drops the Negro dialect and speaks in her natural voice."
** "Do you want some of this blessing?" "Yes, Brown Sugar" "Do you want SOME OF THIS ''BLESSING!?!?!''" "YES, Brown Sugar!"
** "HETEROSEXUAL LOVE LACKS DRAMA!!!" "That's bullshit!"
** "I envy you so much, I wish to be reincarcerated as a black man." "OOOHHH YEAAAH!"
** "And what about that Dutch girl singing about her fucking keys?"
** "Do you know what it's like to hustle for dimes on the mean streets of South Central?" [[LemonyNarrator "Nobody in this play knows what it's like to hustle for dimes on the mean streets of South Central."]]
** "At this point in the play, we were planning a show tune, an upbeat, "gotta leave this town" kinda show tune. But we don't know how to write those kinds of tunes." All the while, the youth is dancing to an imaginary show tune, then suddenly stops and looks confused. "However, we do know how to make fun of European avant-garde cinema!"
* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming - "Keys" "Come Down Now"

* LemonyNarrator - TheNarrator, who is actually the grown-up version of the Youth, and who constantly breaks the FourthWall, and the imaginary wall between him and the cast

* At one point the youth mixes up the German words ''liebe'' and ''lieder'', accidentally telling Desi "I song you." Later, the two of them fight and Desi yells, "I don't want to be a song. I want to be loved. And you don't know the difference."

* NarmCharm / StylisticSuck - Arguable. It's probably intentional, and done to great comic effect, but isn't self-aware enough to fit perfectly under StylisticSuck.
** "That they can haunt you to your grave... that they can be TORTURE!
** "You formed inside my ''bo-dy''. I understand ''everything'' about you!
** "What's inside is just a lie! W-w-w-what's inside is just a lie!" "Culture is cosmetic, culture is cosmetic, culture is cosmetic..."
** "Hit the WALL, free at LAST. Hit the WALL, free at LAST."
** Pretty much the whole of 'Identity'.
-->"'Child, what's become of you, haven't you got any sense?
-->Child, what's become of you, haven't you got any sense?
-->Child, what's become of you, haven't you got any sense?
-->Nein my momma. Nein my momma. Nein my momma.
-->Nein my momma. Nein my momma Nein momma Nein mommamomma ma ma ma ma!'"

* TearJerker - Youth and his Mom's [[spoiler: last telephone call]], "Cue Music", "Love Like That" and "Come Down Now".
* TheTropeSong - "Mom Song"
* TrueArtIsAngsty - Youth's first motto once he joins the German artist colony Nowhaus.
* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible - Youth's ''second'' motto once he joins Nowhaus.

-->'''Sudabey''': "My porno films feature fully-clothed men making business deals."
-->'''Mr. Franklin''' ''(pulls scarf over head and sings soprano)'': Vissi d'arte. Hello - Maria Callas speaking. Yes it's me, darlings, with my funny nose, skinny legs and all and I have nothing to hide. If I were anymore real, child, I'd be fictional!

* MeaningfulEcho -The song "It's Alright" [[spoiler: First said by [[CureYourGays Mr. Franklin]] trying to convince the Youth that he is okay after he confessed that he is basically a coward. Sung again in Amsterdam when the Youth is openly accepted without question into his "new family". Youth begs his mother to answer the question "Is it alright?" when she rings on the Christmas Eve before she dies right near the end of the show. All she can reply with is "I love you." Finally sung by the "artistic" version of the Youth's late mother, or the version of her brought back to life by song. Stew, the grown-up Youth (as we have probably figured by now) repeatedly asks her "Is it alright?" to which she sings "Yes, it's alright" and leaves him.]]

* RageAgainstTheMentor - Youth does this to his choir master Franklin, saying that he and his friends are going to live the life Fraânklin merely talks about living.

* MeaningfulEcho -The song "It's Alright" [[spoiler: First said by [[CureYourGays Mr. Franklin]] trying to convince the Youth that he is okay after he confessed that he is basically a coward. Sung again in Amsterdam when the Youth is openly accepted without question into his "new family". Finally sung by the "artistic" version of the Youth's late mother.]]

-->'''Mr. Franklin''' '' (pulls scarf over head and sings soprano)'': Vissi d'arte. Hello. Maria Callas speaking. Yes it's me, darling, with my skinny legs, funny nose and all!

** "At this point in the play, we were planning a show tune, an upbeat, "gonna leave this town" kinda show tune. But we don't know how to write those kinds of tunes." All the while, the youth is dancing to an imaginary show tune, then suddenly stops and looks confused.

* AngryMobSong - May Day"

* CrowningMomentOfAwesome - "Yeah, it’s all right!"

* MeaningfulEcho -The song "It's Alright" [[spoiler: First said by [[CureYourGays Mr. Franklin]] trying to convince the Youth that he is okay after he confessed that he is basically a coward. Sung again in Amsterdam when the Youth is openly accepted without question into his "new family" Finally sung by the "artistic" version of the Youth's late mother.]]

* RockstarSong - "Passing Phase"�

* TearJerker - Youth and his Mom's [[spoiler: last telephone call]], "Cue Music"�, "Love Like That" and "Come Down Now".

** "HETEROSEXUAL LOVE LACKS DRAMA!!!" "That's bullshit"

** "HETEROSEXUAL LOVE LACKS DRAMA!!!"

* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming - "Keys"

** Also "Welcome to Amsterdam" is sung aLOT in "Amsterdam" and trilled ironically when Youth is singing "Stoned", about the side effects of the drugs and odd love Marianna provides.

* MeaningfulEcho - At one point the youth mixes up the German words ''liebe'' and ''lieder'', accidentally telling Desi "I song you." Later, the two of them fight and Desi yells, "I don't want to be a song. I want to be loved. And you don't know the difference."

->"'Child, what's become of you, haven't you got any sense?
->Child, what's become of you, haven't you got any sense?
->Child, what's become of you, haven't you got any sense?
->Nein my momma. Nein my momma. Nein my momma.
->Nein my momma. Nein my momma Nein momma Nein mommamomma ma ma ma ma!'"

->[[CrowningMusicOfAwesome Mariana, and Moroccan hash have gotten me stoned!]]

* GrassIsGreener- The Youth and Europe

->[[CrowningMusicOfAwesome Mariana, rocking hash, you've got me stoned!]]
->And I can't find my way home.'"

* NarmCharm - So many, yet most have an [[CrowningMusicOfAwesome amazing]] effect!
** "What's inside is just a lie! W-w-w-what's inside is just a lie!" "Culture is cosmetic, culture is cosmetic, culture is cosmetic..."
** "Hit the WALL, free at LAST. Hit the WALL, free at LAST."
** Pretty much the whole of 'Identity'.
->"'Child, what's become of you, haven't you got any sense?
->Child, what's become of you, haven't you got any sense?
->Child, what's become of you, haven't you got any sense?
->Nein my momma. Nein my momma. Nein my momma.
->Nein my momma. Nein my momma Nein momma Nein mommamomma ma ma ma ma!'"

->- ''Stoned''

->"''I let my PAIN fuck my EGO
->and I [[NarmCharm call the bastard ART!]]''"
->- ''Youth brands himself the "twentieth century incarnate"''

->"''Today my edges dull together

->And I can't find my way home.''"

* RockstarSong - "Passing Phase"

* TearJerker - Youth and his Mom's [[spoiler: last telephone call]], "Cue Music", "Love Like That"

It's final few performances were recorded by SpikeLee (one of the show's biggest fans) and edited into a "concert movie"-style film version, which is currently playing at the IFC theatre in NewYorkCity, and is available On Demand, and on DVD.