Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk on tour

Local theatre goers who allowed fears of traffic jams of - well - Biblical proportions to scare them away from the Fox Theatre Tuesday night [January 26th, 1999 - the first night of the Pope's visit to St. Louis] missed one of the best dance shows to hit town in months. It was the St. Louis premiere of Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk, the 1996 celebration of rhythm and tap by George Wolfe and Savion Glover.

Originally a project of the Joseph Papp Public Theatre - which Mr. Wolfe now directs - Bring in 'Da Noise is a virtuoso display that celebrates rhythm, drumming and - especially - tap. And not just the happy-go-lucky tap of vintage Hollywood. In Bring in 'Da Noise, tap runs the emotional gamut from despair and rage to joy and love. It's ominous, exultant, menacing, embracing - everything that dance and rhythm can be.

It's an ensemble show, with a singer, narrator, two incredible drummers and four versatile dancers. During the show's two hours, they all take on various parts as they tell the story of black America, from the slave ships kidnapping Africans to taxis ignoring their descendants in New York. Some of the scenes that stand out in my memory include:

"The Lynching Blues", in which 'Da Singer (Debra Bryd) wails a list of how many blacks were lynched in which states in 1916 and for what offenses - many of them chillingly petty - while a dancer (Dominique Kelley) does a cheerful buck and wing on a crate in a riverfront setting. As the song progresses, the dance changes from a carefree shuffle to the twirl of a corpse at the gallows. It's a chilling and brilliant moment.

"That's Tap" and "The Uncle Huck-a-Buck Song", in which The Kid (Christopher A Scott) tries to break in to movies, only to find Hollywood awash in facile but superficial tappers like Grin and Flash (Sean C. Fielder and original cast member Vincent Bingham) and willing clowns like Uncle Huck-A-Buck (Dominique Kelley). The latter is the centerpiece of an acidic parody of the demeaning Shirley Temple/Bill "Bojangles" Robinson films, with a swipe at the stereotyped singing crows from Dumbo.

"The Panhandlers" and "Drummin'" - spectacular displays of percussion with found objects like plastic drums and pots and pans. Drummers Martin Luther King and Dennis J. Dove are as amazing to watch as they are to hear, with graceful and economic movements that incorporate elements of juggling.

There are other great moments, including an industrial dance on an ugly construction of pipes and metal stairs depicting the hard life of factory workers in the northern cities and a solo in which Sean Fielder illustrates Savion Glover's recorded reminiscences of the great tappers of his childhood. You'll probably have your own favorite moments after you see Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk - which I strongly encourage you to do.

The show plays the Fox nightly through Sunday, January 31^st. Call 534-1111 for ticket information.