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Rebecca Naomi Jones on stage and screen

posted by Chad Jones on Thu, Oct 1, 2009
in Backstage buzz

In the very near future, Rebecca Naomi Jones will be in several places at once: onstage as Whatsername in Green Day’s American Idiot and on Berkeley and San Francisco screens in Passing Strange The Movie.

Rebecca, who was last at Berkeley Rep in 2006 with the world premiere of Passing Strange, is winning a whole new legion of fans for her sizzling performance in American Idiot. With a pink streak coursing through her dark hair, she makes a phenomenal impression in numbers such as “Last Night on Earth,” a sexy dance with John Gallagher, Jr., and leading the women in the cast through a searing “Letterbomb.”

When Berkeley Rep audiences experienced Rebecca in Passing Strange, they were abundantly aware of her talents. So were audiences at The Public in New York and then on Broadway, where the show won a Tony Award for Stew, the co-creator of the show (with Heidi Rodewald), in the category of best book of a musical.

During the last weekend of performances on Broadway, celebrated director Spike Lee filmed the show, and now his vision of Passing Strange is finally arriving on Bay Area screens – for one week only. Lucky for us, the arrival of the movie coincides with Rebecca’s run in American Idiot.

On Monday, October 5, Berkeley Rep hosts a special screening of the Passing Strange The Movie at the Shattuck Cinemas (2230 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley). After the 7pm screening, Rebecca will share her experiences with the show and answer questions. Tickets are $10 general, $8 for seniors and students and are available online.

Rebecca has seen the movie a few times and says people who loved Passing Strange on stage will love the movie.

“It feels like a filmed performance in the best way, in much the same way the show felt like a concert – it’s so in your face,” Rebecca explains. “Spike really controls the focus with the close-ups. The movie, like the show, really does have this major, powerful impact. You feel the need to move with it and talk back. On stage or on film, the show has this energy that’s all-encompassing, and on film it’s as moving as it was in the theatre.”

The close-ups, which were actually filmed on the Monday, the day after the final performance, when, Rebecca recalls, the cast was “tired beyond belief.” Still, she marvels at the performances.

“Some of the scenes really benefit from the close-ups,” she says. “On stage, some of the subtlety and intimacy of the performances couldn’t always be seen from the back of the house, but Spike really captures those moments.”

Because Spike was such a fan of the show, and because he respected Annie Dorsen’s direction so much, he didn’t re-direct the actors’ performances. He made some slight changes – like exchanging black Converse sneakers worn by Stew and Daniel Breaker for red ones or having an actor interact with real keys instead of using pantomime – but he specifically told the actors not to scale down their performances for the screen.

“He really wanted to present the show as a theatrical piece,” Rebecca recalls. “He gave us the gift of preserving our work and presenting it to a much wider audience.”

A lifelong fan of music, Rebecca is classically trained and appeared in a number of opera’s as a member of the Met’s children’s chorus. Though she loved classical music, she was pulled into the world of popular music and from an early age was singing and writing her own songs.

Having now been in two wildly different rock musicals -- with shared elements of passion and energy -- Rebecca is feeling the need to get back to her own music. Inspired by Passing Strange, she wants to learn the electric bass, and she and a friend are talking about forming an all-women Nirvana cover band.

“I want to be in a band,” Rebecca enthuses. “Desperately!”

Visit Rebecca’s website.

Watch the Passing Strange trailer and clips.