From stage to screen, ‘Strange’ plays on

As the show’s lyricist, co-composer, book writer, and on-stage narrator, Stew (born Mark Stewart) had never worked as hard on a project in his life.

“My band can make a record for $3,000, and it will last forever. Broadway theater producers put $5 million into a show and then let it go the next day? We just didn’t understand that at all,’’ he says. “I mean, I was ready to sneak in some friends with cameras to shoot the play before it closed, just because I couldn’t walk away from it without documenting the experience.’’

Sitting next to Stew in a Manhattan conference room is the man he has to thank for helping to immortalize “Passing Strange’’ for the big and small screens. That would be Spike Lee, the director of “Do the Right Thing’’ and “Malcolm X,’’ whose cinematic version of the play, “Passing Strange: The Movie’’ opened in New York on Friday and is available on-demand on the Sundance Selects channel starting today.

Melding the storytelling traditions of musical theater with the raw power of a rock concert, “Passing Strange’’ was hailed for its inventiveness. With Stew as the singing narrator, six other actors playing various roles, and an onstage band, the show tells the semi-autobiographical story of its creator as a rebellious black youth who rejects his religious upbringing in 1970s Los Angeles in favor of bohemian adventures in Europe - sex, drugs, and politics - as he searches for an artistic and personal identity.

Although not a commercial hit, the musical captured the hearts of critics and earned seven Tony award nominations, winning for its book.

Lee first saw the show at the off-Broadway Public Theater in 2007, bringing along his friend Wesley Snipes the second time around. Later, when “Passing Strange’’ moved to Broadway, Lee hung out backstage and got to know Stew, the cast, and band members.

When plans began to take shape to film the stage version of “Passing Strange,’’ it was obvious to Stew and the show’s producers whom to approach.

Lee calls the play “a monumental experience’’ and downplays his role in translating it to film, deferring credit to Stew, co-composer and musical director Heidi Rodewald, stage director Annie Dorsen, the cast, and band.

“They had done all the hard work. I’m just like [Yankees closer] Mariano Rivera coming in in the ninth inning to get the save,’’ he says with a laugh. “I just didn’t want a blown save.’’

Stew extols the filmmaker for successfully transferring a three-dimensional live experience to a two-dimensional screen.

“When you are watching this film, you are watching his vision of our vision, which is a unique thing,’’ Stew explains. “It’s not your standard film of a theater performance. . . . This is something of a new model because, to me, it’s not just a filmed play. The film brings out aspects of the show that we always wanted to be brought out, but couldn’t because of certain limitations in the theater.’’

Logistically, the filming of “Passing Strange’’ happened with lightning speed. Using 15 cameras, Lee and his production crew shot the final three public performances from the back and wings of the theater. On the Monday after the play closed, the cast performed the show, stopping and starting, in front of a limited audience. This enabled Lee to shoot close-ups, dolly shots, crane shots, and other coverage.

“It’s not the kind of play where everyone’s just doing, like, their Henrik Ibsen thing. We weren’t just sitting there at a table like in ‘12 Angry Men.’ ’’ says Stew. “It’s the type of play where you’ve got six live people freakin’ it. And the film captures those moments in a more graphic and expressive way.’’

In conversation, Stew, 47, and Lee, 52, exhibit an easy rapport, with their discussion of the film punctuated with gales of knowing laughter. Both were middle-class black kids growing up in urban settings, with similar cultural touchstones, from the Jackson 5 and “Sanford and Son’’ to sports stars like Walt Frazier and Wilt Chamberlain.

“Having a shorthand with the person you’re collaborating with really helps,’’ says Stew. “I knew there was nothing in this story that he wouldn’t [understand].’’

Both identified with a disaffected protagonist who feels like an outsider in mainstream and African-American culture.

“If you were a middle-class black kid especially, it was like, ‘Why you wanna be a filmmaker or a musician? You can be a lawyer now. You can be a doctor now,’ ’’ Stew recalls. “I had teachers who practically said, ‘Martin Luther King died so you can be a lawyer.’ ’’

“I might as well have told people I was trying to walk on the moon,’’ says Lee of his filmmaking aspirations. “It was like, ‘Shoot, you need to get a good job and leave that other stuff for white folks.’ ’’