Newsday, June 2005

DRUMSTRUCK. Conceived by Warren Lieberman, directed by David Warren. Dodger Stages, 340 West 50th Street. Tickets $66 and $61 ($26 student rush). Visit www.drumstruckny.com or call 212-239-6200. Seen Saturday.

The happy, thumping chaos of a hundred drums greets you even before you enter the theater where Drumstruck is playing. The joyful rhythms come not from the stage or sound system, but from your fellow audience members: little ones pummeling away with fierce concentration, and adults getting on a mighty fine groove themselves.

A two-foot high Djembe drum rests on every seat, and by the time the house lights dim, the beat rises to a fever pitch and the audience roars with exhilaration. Drumstruck is that kind of show. Based on the impromptu jam sessions at the Lieberman Drum Café in Johannesburg, South Africa, Drumstruck assembles eleven South and West African percussionists and your basic motley crew of New York theater-goers to make beautiful music together.

Ayanda, a member of the Zulu tribe, explains that in Africa, drumming is
used to bond communities: "When we sing, we all sing; when we drum, we all drum." While Drumstruck underscores the political dimensions of music in South Africa—"first to resist, then to unite," and to bring cheer to goldminers' backbreaking work—the emphasis is squarely on fun.

Against the backdrop of Neil Patel's handsome set, a bamboo enclosure
flanked by leafy trees, the musicians of Drumstruck sing, dance and play their drums, often inviting the audience to join in. Nicholas Djanie [corrected] "conducts" the amateur players with all the flair of a symphonic maestro, leading them through intricate patterns and subtle dynamic shifts with easy-to-follow hand and foot gestures. He meets the inevitable flubs (some brought on by his trickery) with good-natured chiding, winning squeals of laughter from the small fry.

Some audience members seem ill at ease at first, but one of the delights
of Drumstruck is seeing prim matrons and Banlon-clad grandpas getting caught up in the excitement and pounding away, heedless of their initial inhibitions. (This writer confesses to taking notes with one hand and smacking her drum with the other.)

The ten sections of Drumstruck, performed without intermission,
encompass a wide range of musical styles. They include "Mamaliye," a
traditional South African song of thanks to Mother Earth (performed as a
sing-along); "Jikele Maweni," a popular song by diva Miriam Makeba, known as "Mama Africa"; and "Khoisan," an ancient Bushman song and dance. There is a master drum duel, too, along with a bit of rap.

The performers' vibrant costumes, with gorgeously wrought beadwork and cloths, make Drumstruck easy on the eyes, as well.

After "Moropa," the raucous finale merging the sounds of shekeres,
timbales and drums from Zambia, Ghana and the Congo, many audience members seemed reluctant to leave behind their borrowed instruments, "drumstruck" by the sheer joy of creating and sharing music.