Stomp and Circumstance

Vanities

At a time when conservatives are decrying “trash” entertainment, Steve McNicholas and Luke Cresswell—the British creators of the hit Off Broadway show Stomp can be forgiven a wry smile. This month, the three Stomp casts (of eight performers each) will take to the stage at the Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles with trash cans, brooms, Zippos, and even the kitchen sink to create a unique musical-theater experience before an estimated viewing audience of one billion people worldwide.

McNicholas, 40, concedes that Stomp will not be the most orthodox entertainment at the 68th Oscars show. “The idea grew out of street musicals we performed together at the Edinburgh Festival in the early 1980s,” he explains. “We played conventional instruments, but Luke didn’t want to carry a drum kit around, so we experimented with whatever was at hand, including bicycles and policemen’s helmets.” They felt the festival was dominated by solo acts, and the idea for the ensemble was born.

Since opening to sellout crowds at New York’s Orpheum Theatre two years ago after a successful run in London, the Obieand Olivier Award-winning percussion group has kept busy. They have appeared frequently on television, including The Tonight Show, Roseanne, and 10 commercials, and also performed on Quincy Jones’s most recent album, Q's Jook Joint, released last fall. (In turn, Jones was an executive producer of Brooms, a 16-minute film on the Stomp routine released last winter.) Two Stomp companies are currently on a 54-city U.S. tour, with plans to visit Japan and South America.

The harvest has given McNicholas and Cresswell, 31, both of whom live in Brighton, England, freedom to develop projects that do not involve cleaning implements—among them Mr. Frear’s Ears, five shorts recently aired on Nickelodeon, and their first feature-length film. “It will be a complete departure from Stomp," McNicholas says. “We will still rely on musical elements, but we’ll use narrative and dialogue as well.” In the meantime, they are looking toward Oscar. “We can ask for no better showcase,” says McNicholas. “Everyone in Hollywood will be watching us.”

EAMON LYNCH