Theater review by Adam Feldman
Seung Whan Song’s Cookin’ is a Korean smorgasbord of entertainment. A comic celebration of Samul nori percussion, the show is set in a zany kitchen as four chefs prepare a wedding banquet, making a merry clamor with cooking utensils in place of the usual drumsticks and gongs. Knives, ladles, chopsticks and empty water containers are just a few of the culinary props to be pressed into service as musical instruments, as though the cast of Stomp were guest-starring on The Iron Chef. (Bring in ’da soys, bring in ’da funk!) But the show’s wall of rhythm is only part of a performative buffet that also includes bite-sized samples of clowning, juggling, magic, slapstick, romance, stage combat, audience participation and Gallagher-style food demolishment. It’s a show with everything, including the kitchen sink.
A smash hit in its native country, Cookin’ has now returned to the New Victory Theater, where it played in 2003 before moving to a long Off Broadway run downtown. You can see every bead of sweat fly from the performers’ hair as they bang away in furious synchronicity, sometimes bathed in rock-star lights. There may be nothing exceptional about the show’s ingredients taken on their own, but the cast performs with gusto and the audience pours from the theater in a sea of goofy grins.
Cookin'. New Victory Theater (Off Broadway). By Seung Whan Song. Directed by Song. With ensemble cast. Running time: 1hr 15mins. No intermission. Through October 30.
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