Stomp (theatrical show)

1990–98

Stomp was created by Steve McNicholas and Luke Cresswell in 1991. The performers use a variety of everyday objects as percussion instruments in their shows.^[1]

Cresswell and McNicholas first worked together in 1981 as members of the street band Pookiesnackenburger and the theatre group Cliff Hanger. Together, these groups presented a series of street comedy musicals at the Edinburgh Festival throughout the early 1980s. After two albums, a TV series and extensive touring in Europe, Pookiesnackenburger also produced the "Bins" commercial for Heineken lager. The piece was originally written and choreographed as part of the band's stage show.

In 1986, Cresswell formed the Urban Warriors, a 'junkpercussion duo'^[2] with Benjamin Frederick Tin, a Liverpool drummer also based in Brighton. Cresswell later said, "Two of us would do street work, beating the hell out of each other with sticks and armour made out of bits of metal."^[3] The Urban Warriors appeared on the 1986 children's television show No.73 and the Tube with Jools Holland. Their performance on No.73 can be seen on YouTube. Tin also appeared in the Heineken advert, playing a drum solo on dustbin lids.

Between 1987 and 1990, Cresswell directed and staged four large-scale outdoor events, including "Beat the Clyde", which involved floating a drum orchestra on a pontoon in the centre of Glasgow. The largest of these events, the "Heineken Hove Lagoon Show", involved a 120 piece drum orchestra featuring the Brighton Festival Chorus and a full orchestral string section.^{[citation needed]}

In the summer of 1991, Cresswell and McNicholas produced, financed, and directed the original Stomp show, previewing at London's Bloomsbury Theatre and premiering at the Assembly Rooms in Edinburgh, where it became the Guardian's "Critic's Choice" and won the Daily Express's "Best of the Fringe" award. Originally a seven-piece (with Luke Cresswell, Theseus Gerard, Fraser Morrison, Carl Smith, Nick Dwyer, David Olrod and Sarah Eddy), Stomp grew to be an eight-person outfit with the addition of Fiona Wilkes in the autumn of '91.

Between 1991 and 1994, the original cast of Stomp played to capacity audiences around the world. The touring culminated in a season at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London in January 1994, where Stomp received an Olivier nomination for the "Best Entertainment Award" and won "Best Choreography Award in a West End show". Also, in 1993, they performed in an advertisement for apples ^[4] for the Australian Horticultural Corporation.^[5]

Stomp began its run at the Orpheum Theatre in New York City in February 1994 winning an Obie Award and a Drama Desk Award for Most Unique Theatre Experience. By the summer of 1994, the first American cast was in place at the Orpheum, freeing the original cast for a tour of North America and Japan. The cast appeared on General Hospital in 1994.

An extended version of Stomp, involving up to 30 cast members, was originally created for the Brighton Festival and was subsequently presented in Melbourne. It was most recently seen in September 1995 in an open-air production at the Acropolis in Athens and at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

In October 1995, Stomp appeared on an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood.^[6]

One by one, the entire cast was interviewed by Space Ghost on the Cartoon Network television sitcom Space Ghost Coast to Coast and appeared on Reading Rainbow in 1996.

The cast cameoed on the seventh season of Mad About You, Season 7, Episode 5, "The Silent Show," 10 November 1998.

2000–present

Stomp performed at the Lincoln Memorial at the Millennium celebrations of US President Bill Clinton. During 2000, a Sesame Street special "Let's Make Music", a collaboration between Stomp and the Muppets, was released on TV and video in North America.

Cresswell and McNicholas began production of their IMAX film, Pulse: A Stomp Odyssey, in Brazil during Carnaval 2000 and completed it in the summer of 2002. Pulse features an international cast, with performances from Kodo, Timbalada and Eva Yerbabuena. It was released in the fall of 2002 and won two awards at La Geode's film festival in Paris the following year. In 2004 it received the ultimate IMAX Award for Best Film at the GSTA in Montreal. Pulse is still playing in IMAX cinemas worldwide.

In September 2002, Stomp entered London's West End at the Vaudeville Theatre, and later that year performed as part of the Royal Variety Show for the second time.

In 2003, a Dolby Digital trailer featuring Stomp performances debuted in cinemas worldwide, and the following year an Emmy nominated sequence was created for ABC Sports coverage of the World Figure Skating Championships.

In 2006, Stomp's New York production passed its 5000th performance mark. In the same year, Cresswell and McNicholas directed a public service announcement for television called "Stomp Out Litter", which featured the cast "sweeping up" at iconic locations in the five boroughs. They also began filming an IMAX 3D movie about South Africa's Sardine run, released in early 2008.

In addition, they were commissioned to create and produce Pandemonium: the Lost and Found Orchestra, which takes the ideas behind Stomp to a symphonic level, in celebration of 40 years of the Brighton Festival. The LFO subsequently performed at the Sydney Opera House as part of the Sydney Festival early in 2007 and at the Royal Festival Hall in London. The show was reworked and renamed for a US tour in 2010: Pandemonium: the Lost and Found Orchestra.

In 2007, Stomp Out Loud opened in Las Vegas at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino with an expanded cast and performed inside a theatre specifically created for the production.

In August 2012, Stomp contributed to the musical segment of the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in London.

"The Gang Goes to Hell: Part 2" is the tenth episode of the eleventh season of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia televised on FXX, 19 March 2016. It is the season finale and the conclusion from the previous episode "The Gang Goes to Hell." The gang is locked in the brig of a Christian chartered cruise ship for their various crimes and offences to other passengers and begin using their bodies and contents of the brig to create a rhythmic production in the style of Stomp.

In October 2017, the show’s creators, Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas, announced that the London show would end its 15-year run in January 2018 but were quoted in an article in The Stage as stating that "its closure would not mark the end of Stomp in London."^[7]

In July 2019, Stomp was the subject of the US sitcom American Dad!. When his uncle dies and leaves him with a large inheritance, Stan Smith goes against his family's wishes for a trip to New York City and uses the money to buy the rights to the Broadway musical Stomp instead.

Stomp were unable to perform in 2020 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In December 2022 the New York production posted its closing notice, shuttering on 8 January 2023 after over 11,000 performances.^[8][9][10]