STOMP into the New Year with new performance at the Merriam
STOMP plays at the Merriam Theater from Dec. 28-Jan 2.
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- The age-old tradition of banging pots and pans for the New Year is taken to a new level with an upcoming performance that comes STOMP-ing into the Merriam Theater right after Christmas.
STOMP is famous for its explosive sounds and inventive percussion productions.
"We're really looking forward to coming back to Philly," says Luke Cresswell, Co-creator, Founder & Director of STOMP. "STOMP has no music style to it. It's just the rhythm."
The eclectic group uses make-shift items as instruments.
"It's just stuff that we find that we like the sound of," says Cresswell, "The dust bins are actually from the UK. They're our classic UK import. Everything else is just industrial waste or kitchen pots, pans wheels, brooms."
Cresswell brought STOMP all the way from the UK to the Orpheum Theater in Lower Manhattan in 1994.
You can play rhythm on anything. They're actually for containing fluorescent tubes. It's like a giant Guillermo because they make a funky sound.
Street busking is at the heart of the now-international group.
They use rhythm to tell stories and to unite people.
"STOMP first started as eight UK performers. Now, we have performers from Brazil, Germany, France, everywhere," says Cresswell.
And they all speak one common language.
"Which is STOMP. What I'm sort of most proud about with STOMP is that schools do their version, and everyone has a version of STOMP," Cresswell says.
There's usually about 50 to 60 STOMPers around the world at any given time.
"It's always been about the cast putting their energy into the show. And that becomes the magic," says Cresswell.
STOMP plays at the Merriam Theater from Dec. 28-Jan 2.
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Kimmel Cultural Campus: Merriam Theater
250 South Broad Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19102
Running through January 2, 2022
