“STOMP,” January 19

Thursday, January 19, 7:30 p.m.

Adler Theatre, 136 East Third Street, Davenport IA

Although the long-running stage sensation will close in New York on January 8 after more than 28 years and 11,472 performances, the gifted percussionists of STOMP are taking their thunderous stage success on the road, with the show's January 19 appearance at Davenport's Adler Theatre to demonstrate why the Boston Globe raved, "If you haven’t seen STOMP, go! If you have seen it, take someone and share the pleasure!”

A hugely admired percussion group that originated in Brighton, England, the eight-performer ensemble of STOMP uses everything but conventional percussion instruments – matchboxes, wooden poles, brooms, garbage cans, Zippo lighters, hubcaps – to fill the stage with magnificent rhythm. In 1991, STOMP was created bySteve McNicholas and Luke Cresswell, who were 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, and in 1986, Cresswell formed the Urban Warriors, a "junkpercussion duo" with Benjamin Frederick Tin. 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 center of Glasgow, while 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.

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 becameThe Guardian's "Critic's Choice" pick and won the Daily Express' "Best of the Fringe" award. Between 1991 and 1994, the original cast of STOMP played to capacity audiences around the world, and the touring culminated in a season at Sadler's Wells Theatre in London in January 1994, where the production received an Olivier nomination for the "Best Entertainment Award" and won "Best Choreography Award in a West End Show." STOMP subsequently began its run at the Orpheum Theatrein New York City in February of 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. As of 2020, it was estimated that STOMP had been performed more than 20,000 times to audiences totalling more than 12 million people around the world.

The national tour of STOMP lands in Davenport on January 19, admission to the 7:30 p.m. show is $33-63, and tickets are available by calling (800)745-3000 and visiting AdlerTheatre.com.