STAGE REVIEW
Kitchen gods carve it up for 'Cookin' ' frenzy

By Joseph T. Rozmiarek
Advertiser Theater Critic

'Cookin' ' 7:30 p.m. today and Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday Hawai'i Theater $10-$46; 528-0506

Clearly inspired by "Stomp," the production may have less-subtle artistry, but makes up with warm comic flair and a

story line that almost gives the performance something that feels like a plot. It's set in a restaurant kitchen where three young cooks must whip up a wedding banquet in only 90 minutes. But these youngsters would rather have fun.

Away from the watchful eye of the owner, they turn the kitchen into a playground of vegetables and anything that makes noise. They are joined by the owner's nephew, who wants to cook but is assigned to cleaning up. He develops an eye for a young woman cook and creates a minor jealousy triangle among the chopping boards.

The cast opens and closes the show with plenty of violent and showy demon drumming and, in between, manages to produce three full courses plus dessert.

There's lots of audience involvement. Even before the show begins, we are entertained by projected messages that begin a curious dialogue with the crowd. Later, a couple of audience members are brought on stage to sample the soup, and four more are coaxed into a full-on dumpling competition.

Also as in "Stomp," a cast member challenges the audience to follow him in mimicking increasingly difficult rhythms by clapping and stamping their feet. Later, the cast fling dozens of ping-pong balls into the crowd.

When they're not rapping out a beat with knives, chopsticks, pots and pans, the cast is flinging vegetables, cooking over open flames, and battling each other with broomsticks and nunchuckas made from whisks.

They also honor their kitchen god, chase a fly in slow motion, comically slaughter a goose and play impossible aerial games with a stack of plates. One even gets stuck in a trash can.

This makes for a very full 90 minutes of performance, which seem always to be offering a new and inspiring way to create mayhem with common materials.

The players ate tireless, disarmingly appealing and genuinely skilled as comic actors, dancers and drummers. Background music and sound effects create a driving beat and vivid backlighting, with strobes and black lights creating special effects.

The audience responds warmly to this approach. Youngsters are enthralled, and even curmudgeons will crack more than a few smiles.