In comparison to Canadian Stage’s Liv Stein, there’s another, far more vibrant piece about an aspiring young musician to be seen in Passing Strange. As a boy, he’s into Zen and won’t go to church until his mother, identified as Mother, forces him into it. Youth himself is a blank slate, but that’s the point, one that Jahlen Barnes’ performance socks across with great energy, artfully controlled. At its end, Passing Strange succumbs to the kind of portentousness seemingly unavoidable in rock musicals. Passing Strange runs until February 5 at The Opera House, Queen and Broadview, Toronto.

Source: National Post January 31, 2017 20:01 UTC