Rocker and rapper up for top Broadway honors

By Michelle Nichols

NEW YORK (Reuters) - He is called Stew and describes himself as a rocker, not a playwright, so he finds it surreal to be up for four Tony Awards, more than anyone else.

His hit show "Passing Strange," which opened in February, is competing on Sunday for seven of Broadway's top theatre honors, including best musical. Stew is nominated for writing the show, composing the score, lead actor and orchestration.

"It feels crazy, strange, fantastic," he told Reuters in an interview. "When you're playing in rock clubs all your life, the last thing you think you will get nominated for is a Tony. That's just out of my frame of reference completely."

"I would not call myself a playwright. I am a rock musician who made a play," said Stew, 47, whose real name is Mark Stewart.

"Passing Strange" is about a young black man who "wants to get out of his restrictive middle-class church world." He travels abroad seeking artistic freedom and identity. Stew describes the show as "autobiographical fiction."

The show was first staged at California's Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2006, then off-Broadway in New York in 2007 before moving to the Great White Way. "This is a bonus being on Broadway. This is really just like this amazing icing, it's like the cherry on top. If it ends tomorrow or ... in a year, I'm completely fine," he said.

'DIVINE ACCIDENT'

Another accidental Broadway star is New Yorker Lin-Manuel Miranda, whose show "In The Heights," which opened in March, led the Tony nominations with 13 nods, including best musical. Miranda is up for best lead actor and best original score.