Stomp brings percussion rhythm performance

MORRISTOWN — Stomp, the international percussion sensation, comes to the Mayo Performing Arts Center on Friday and Saturday, March 8 and 9 at 8 p.m. This performance is sponsored by Digiplex Destinations.

From its beginnings as a street performance in the UK, Stomp has grown into an international sensation over the past 20 years, having performed in more than 50 countries and in front of more than 24 million people. Throughout its life, the show has continued to change by creating new material.

The performers "make a rhythm out of anything we can get our hands on that makes a sound," says co-founder/director Luke Cresswell. A combination of percussion, movement and visual comedy, Stomp has created its own inimitable, contemporary form of rhythmic expression: both household and industrial objects find new life as musical instruments in the hands of an idiosyncratic band of body percussionists. It is a journey through sound, a celebration of the everyday and a comic interplay of characters wordlessly communicating through dance and drum.

Synchronized stiff-bristle brooms become a sweeping orchestra, eight Zippo lighters flip open and closed to create a fiery fugue; wooden poles thump and clack in a rhythmic explosion. Stomp uses everything but conventional percussion instruments — dustbins, tea chests, radiator hoses, boots, hub caps — to fill the stage with a compelling and unique act that is often imitated but never duplicated.

Stomp is the winner of an Olivier Award for Best Choreography (London's Tony Award), a New York Obie Award, a Drama Desk Award for Unique Theatre Experience, and a Special Citation from Best Plays.

Tickets range from $47 to $77. The Mayo Performing Arts Center is located at 100 South St. in Morristown. For more information call the box office at 973-539-8008

or online at mayoarts.org.