If you find dashboard drummers or pencil tappers annoying, then “Stomp Out Loud” may not be for you. But if you hear an iota of music in their drumming or tapping, then this energetic HBO special may incite you to bang along.
Premiering at 7 p.m. Saturday, the 45-minute show features cast members from the off-Broadway hit “Stomp” performing the troupe’s original percussion and dance routines on location in and around New York City. Created in 1991 by Englishmen Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas, “Stomp” creatively uses everyday household and industrial objects–pots and pans, garbage cans, push brooms–as musical instruments.
A testament to “Stomp’s” ability to create music no matter what the surroundings, the performers do their stuff in a variety of striking urban settings, from the expected (an alley) to the unexpected (a restaurant kitchen). In one of the most captivating segments, the beautifully filmed show opens with cast members suspended from a billboard frame. Against a sun-streaked view of the Manhattan skyline, the performers create African-Latin-like rhythms while banging on hubcaps, traffic signs, car parts and other “junk” attached to the frame.
Scenes flow into each other, creating mostly smooth transitions from location to location. In “Basketballs,” people play a musical game of street hoops using the pavement, garbage dumpsters, metal trap doors and more to create sound. Then from above, an angry and annoyed chef dumps a pan of water on the players. The action moves to the chef’s kitchen, where the show’s most colorful number takes place.
Yes, people bang on pots and pans, but that’s not all. As the camera moves frantically through the kitchen, less obvious sounds become music– cooks chopping vegetables, dishwashers washing dishes, an assistant cracking ice, a waitress shouting “ordering.”
The special also uses a Brooklyn Navy Yard warehouse as a makeshift theater for several segments. Here the company performs some of its best-known numbers, including the self-explanatory “Brooms” and “Poles,” onstage in front of an audience. But it’s during these signature pieces that “Stomp Out Loud” sometimes drags, its rhythms growing monotonous. Add the special’s urban settings, which give context to the noises, and the excitement level soars.
Whether performed on the stage or street, however, “Stomp” won’t impress everyone. “Stomp’s” creators clearly recognize that some people only will hear noise, not music. They give some comical nods to these unenlightened folks. The few speaking parts mostly go to the disgruntled. There’s the water-dumping chef who shouts “Stop, stop” at the noisemakers below. And there’s the elderly elevator operator who rides the freight elevator with Cresswell during the closing credits. As a silent Cresswell stomps around the elevator, the man asks “Do you have an affliction or something?” But by ride’s end, this non-believer appears converted. “Do you do weddings?,” he asks as the screen goes black.
Like the elevator operator, other skeptics may want to give “Stomp Out Loud” a chance. Cresswell and company just might get them to see the light–and hear the music–too.
