'Stomp' Gives the Audience What it Wants at Playhouse Square

It's not hard to understand why we all appreciate rhythmical music with a strong percussive element. After all, we were born with a drumbeat in our chest that plays nonstop every day of our lives and when it stops, we do. That's one way to get your attention.

Another way is to attend Stomp, the percussion-palooza now visiting Playhouse Square for the umpty-umpth time since it opened on Broadway in 1994. This brilliant re-imagining (or rediscovery) of the quotidian sounds that occupy our world has been dazzling audiences with its explosive dance moves and its wry sense of humor.

The question is whether almost two uninterrupted hours of watching people bang, strum, squeeze, toss, shove and yes, stomp various ordinary household and industrial objects amounts to theatrical satisfaction. Clearly, there are plenty of Stomp addicts out there and for them, this show is catnip accented with a microscopic dose of meth.

For the unindoctrinated, Stomp romps on a street-wise set abloom with raw partial walls and a panorama of worn hubcaps and other detritus mounted above a second-level platform. This is where the performers, who never speak, pound on and abuse all manner of things, starting with push brooms and moving on to rubber tubes, crashing shopping carts (Heinen's family, hide your eyes), water-filled kitchen sinks (with an added pissing gag), garbage cans with lids, newspapers (!), and large rubber rafts.

This performance answers several burning questions, such as how you can generate an ensemble musical piece out of plastic bags of various sizes. Or what you can do with hard-sided rolling luggage when you're not travelling. Or how you can use empty metal barrels as DIY stilts.

The basic forms of rhythm-making for the hard-working eight-person cast (at this performance: Micah Cowher, Jose Filgueira, Declan Hayden, Cary Lamb Jr., John Gavin, Cade Slattery, Tami, and Madeline Jafari) are their hands and feet, which they clap and (sorry) stomp throughout the piece. During this time, there's an extended portion of audience participation as patrons are invited to echo the different clapping sequences. That bit is charming at first but, for those who are not dyed-in-the-wool Stomp geeks, it becomes less so after the 5th iteration.

The same is true for the comedy relief (similar to the Blue Man Group), which is mostly handled by a tall guy with wispy hair. He presents as a put-upon schlemiel and his shtick is cute early, but Charlie Chaplin he ain't and it gets tired after the 10th time he poses coyly with a section of drainpipe.

Of course, none of that matters to the card-carrying Stomp fans in the audience, and that is as it should be. This is an extravaganza of odd and funny noises that often replicate jazz and other musical genres. They know their audience and give 'em what they want. And that is, in the immortal words of Christopher Walken in the renowned SNL skit, "More cowbell!"

If you haven't experienced Stomp, the only way you'll know if you're a Stomp-aniac is to give it a try. Who knows, it may lead you to entirely new and fulfilling relationship with your kitchen sink.

Stomp
Through April 21 at Playhouse Square, Connor Palace Theater, 1615 Euclid Ave., playhousesquare.org, 216-241-6000.

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