This bard is the bomb

Hip-hop happening The Bomb-itty of Errors takes American Stage's Shakespeare tradition to a whole new level.

[Times photos: Lara Cerri] Charles Anthony Burks plays Dromio of Syracuse and other characters in The Bomb-itty of Errors.

By JOHN FLEMING, Times Performing Arts Critic
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 15, 2002

ST. PETERSBURG -- Ah, opening night under the stars on Demens Landing.

The fish are jumping in Tampa Bay, night birds warble in the palm trees, waves lap against the dock of the marina, moonbeams cast a glow over the picnic spread out on the grass, all to the lyrical uplift of Shakespearean verse tripping off the tongues of a merry troupe of actors.

DJ Kevin Shand, situated on a platform over the stage, lays down the beats for the rap version of The Comedy of Errors. IF YOU GO: The American Stage Shakespeare in the Park production of The Bomb-itty of Errors runs through May 12 at Demens Landing on the downtown St. Petersburg waterfront. Performances are Wednesday through Sunday at 8 p.m.; gates open at 6 p.m. General admission blanket seats: $7 (Wed., Thur., Sun.) and $10 (Fri., Sat.); reserved chairs: $22. For information and reservations, call (727) 823-PLAY.

Think again. At Friday's soggy opening of the 17th annual American Stage Shakespeare in the Park, audience members pulled jackets and blankets over heads, puddles formed onstage and drizzle played havoc with sound and lights.

But hardly anyone left, so riveting was the action on stage.

To rap or not to rap, that was the question about The Bomb-itty of Errors, a hip-hop treatment of The Comedy of Errors that is this year's park show. The answer -- even in a second-act downpour -- is a resounding, hilarious yes.

It is first and foremost a performers' triumph. With a delightful cast of four actor-rappers -- ranney, Joe Hernandez-Kolski, Chris Edwards and Charles Anthony Burks -- rocking and riffing and rhyming in the sort of inspired silliness that confuses "echinacea" with "euthanasia," Bomb-itty is a blast.

To some, a rap version of Shakespeare must sound dreadful, but they ought to give this show a chance. In its madcap way, it is closer to the spirit of the bard than many a bucolic production in which actors have flowers woven in their hair and struggle with iambic pentameter. To see ranney, a hulking guy in a tracksuit, playing Antipholus as the Elizabethan counterpart of MC Hammer, is to experience a genuinely creative rethinking of Shakespeare for our time.

For cleverness and savvy, Bomb-itty even outdoes that other high-energy break with tradition, the punkish Macbeth that rocked the park five years ago. This production takes American Stage's annual tradition to an entirely new level.

John Meisner and his son, Carl, were among the crowd who braved the rain during the second act of Friday night's opening performance.

Young people, who have grown up with hip-hop and its many cultural spinoffs over the last 20 years, will need no handholding to make it to the park this year. They will love the show, and will pick up on the inside rap references that pretty much blow by anyone who doesn't know the difference between Chuck D and Terminator X.

One reason that Bomb-itty is so much more knowing in its transformation of Shakespeare than a lot of other American Stage park shows is a simple matter of time. The script has been honed in workshops and hit productions in New York and Chicago. An MTV version is in the works.

Friday's opening was the Southeast premiere of the "ad-Rap-tation" of Shakespeare's earliest and shortest comedy by Jordan Allen-Dutton, Jason Catalano, GQ and Erik Weiner, who first did it as a senior class project at New York University. The original director, Andy Goldberg, has expanded the staging to make an impressive impact on Lino Toyos' graffiti-covered urban set (looking very Rent-like), with eye-popping neon lighting that comes on during a great first-act number. There is added pizazz in the form of four foxy Fly Girls (shades of TV's In Living Color) and a trio of break dancers, with choreography by Paulette Johnson.

Cross-dressing Chris Edwards plays Luciana, as well as Dromio of Ephesus, a cop and other characters.

One cautionary note: Even with the hip-hop angle, Bomb-itty is still Shakespeare, and a little homework pays off to get familiar with the knockabout farce about identical twins -- actually, quadruplets in the rap version, but never mind -- named Antipholus and Dromio. Mistaken identity runs rampant, as does gender confusion, and it helps to know the play when, say, Edwards comes on looking like Barbara Stanwyck in sneakers, playing Luciana, along with ranney in an outlandish orange wig, playing Adriana.

The four actors play 16 different characters, with many quick costume changes, from rap-challenged bike messenger to cop, Rastafarian herb doctor to Hernandez-Kolski's gleefully incorrect Hasidic Jewish jeweler, who also delivers the intermission number. Even with the exuberant rap and dancing, Bomb-itty dragged at times during the second act.

The show is entirely rapped to a score by J.A.Q played by DJ Kevin Shand, situated on a platform with a sampler-sequencer and turntables. He mixes up some remarkably subtle, surprising effects, crisscrossing between everything from hard-core rap to snatches of show tunes. Shand, who picks up a mike to add in breathy beats at various points, was probably most affected by Friday's rainfall, having to try to keep his equipment dry with plastic bags. Much of the music seemed to be lost after intermission, but the show gamely went on, and the cast demonstrated plenty of resilience just to get through it.

Bomb-itty is raunchy, just as Shakespeare is raunchy, and hardly any more risque than what you see on primetime TV these days, but the charm and energy of the cast make it all come across as fun and fresh.

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