Stew‘s brilliant musical Passing Strange closes this weekend on Broadway — and Spike Lee will film the final Saturday shows. On July 19, cameras will follow the matinee and evening performance; the show will also be filmed later without an audience. Read Stew’s thoughts about this — and the whole Broadway/Tony Awards/The View experience — on his blog >>

Above, at the press conference last week announcing the film project: Producer Steve Klein, Stew, Spike Lee, the musical’s co-creator Heidi Rodewald and director Annie Dorsen.

Meanwhile, Stew is back onstage at the Public Theatre as part of the Summer Play Festival. Future Me, by Stephen Brown, has new music by Stew and runs July 22-27.

PLUS: A Facebook tipster sends this “new, in-depth, and very outspoken interview” with Stew on Music for Democracy. A sample:

Two unlikely heroes of mine, Maulana Karenga and Robert Redford, taught me the exact same thing: don’t wait for an institution to be built to get you what you need, build the institution your own damn self.

Photo above from Stew’s website.

Photographer: Brad Balfour.