Stomp

STOMP glided across the stage at the Orpheum last weekend in their three performances with an assortment of sounds, creating a visual delight for an audience of all ages.  The irony of STOMP is that the show has graceful, complicated choreography while making loud noises into a rhythmic sensation.  The performers presented a humorous ninety-minute show with a variety of instruments from brooms, boxes, grocery carts, oil drums, buckets, lighters, match boxes, wooden sticks, kitchen sinks, sand water, newspaper, plastic bags, basketballs garbage cans, and pvc pipe creating musical and rhythmic songs.
STOMP has been around for about thirty years while continuing off-Broadway for the last fifteen.  This group of traveling Broadway performers is constantly evolving their non-verbal arts of creating sounds in unusual ways with non-traditional instruments.  What I find amazing is the visual entrancement while these unique auditory treasures are being created.  Anyone that has the strength to carry a kitchen sink supported around their neck by a chain covered in tubing, complete with pots and water, while creating a musical rhythm, and moving in unison on stage and using items in the sink and the water is amazing and fun to watch.  Also, the utilization of light, or lack of light, is comical as the cast performed their lighter act.  The athleticism is amazing and obvious when some of the percussionists are hanging and swinging, twirling, leaping rhythmically from the scaffolding as they are drumming.  
Just listening to STOMP leaves you in awe at the precision and speed which each of these eight performers possesses whether in clapping, tapping, banging, hitting, swooshing, flicking, bouncing, and juggling while at the same time keeping an audience visually connected with their show.
Even though none of the performers were ever identified by name, each had a particular style in developing their own personal identity.  There was the underachiever who easily identified with audience members with his Charlie Brown attitude always a little behind the other cast members.  The blond mohawked performer was the obvious leader frequently engaging the audience in repetitive clapping.  Two women were also a part of this eight-member ensemble, to be they were messy hair girl and dancer girl.  All were amazing with their own individual contributions to making this a memorable experience for the audience.
Even though STOMP has been performed by the routing cast four times previously in Omaha, this group is constantly evolving and two new acts are now a part of this production.
While hoping that STOMP returns again to continue to fascinate and entertains audiences everywhere, I will become aware as I contemplate about the musical qualities of the expandable pvc pipe.