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Regional Reviews: Florida - Southern Stomp Also see John's review of Nunsensations!
Stomp was originally created in Brighton, U.K. in 1991, a 10-year collaboration of its creators, Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas. From its modest beginnings as a street performance it went on to receive an Olivier Award for Best Choreography, an OBIE Award, and a Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatrical Experience. Stomp is indeed a unique combination of percussion, movement and visual comedy. Its setting is an inner-city neighborhood street, framed with the trappings of a junk yard. The cast is dressed in casual urban street wear. There is no music and no dialogue, but there is choreography and a story, or stories. An eight-member percussion group creates rhythmic vignettes using everyday objects such as brooms, buckets, garbage cans, Zippo lighters, boxes of matches, rubber hoses, plastic bags, wash tubs of dishes and their own hands and feet. As these rhythmic stories unfold, we see themes rhythmically presented and then developed and shared with other cast members. The cast members handle rhythmic themes the way orchestral instrumentalists trade and embellish musical themes. During the process there is communication with each other and the audience. Physical comedy built into the show provides the cast members the chance to show individual personality and humor without the use of spoken word. Some moments in the show have a hypnotic complexity of rhythm, and others have the driving strength of African drums. Throughout the show there is enviably refreshing creativity to making rhythmic merriment with whatever is at hand. The high-energy show is physically demanding of its cast who even drum while swinging suspended from ropes and walking atop garbage cans strapped to their feet. This production of Stomp exceeds one's expectations to entertain and engage the audience, and may well awake the inner drummer in you. Stomp appeared from September 25th - 30th, 2007 at the Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House in the Carnival Center For The Performing Arts in Miami, FL. It will be followed by performances from October 2nd - October 7th, 2007 at the Alexander W. Dreyfoos, Jr. Concert Hall in the Raymond F. Kravis Center For The Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, FL. For information on the many diverse offering of the Carnival Center, you may contact them at 305-949-6072, or visit www.carnivalcenter.org. For information on the Kravis Center, you may contact them at 561-832-7469, or visit www.kraviscenter.org. For information on the Broadway Across America Series you may go to www.broadwayacrossamerica.com. Cast Crew
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Stanford Broadway Across America - Miami, in association with Columbia Artists Management, Inc., presents Stomp at Miami's Carnival Center For The Performing Arts. The North American Tour of Stomp has been running since 1995, with a sister tour in Europe and a permanent sit-down production in London. Stomp is now in its 13th year at the Orpheum Theatre in New York City, making it one of the longest-running shows in Off-Broadway history.