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'Dawn' is a mess

By Matt Windman

4:19 PM EDT, September 17, 2007

Danny Hoch definitely deserves mention in any contemporary drama textbook for his role in developing hip-hop theater. Nurtured by performance artists like Hoch, Sarah Jones and Will Power, who grew up around hip hop music, the genre has evolved from improvisational comedy and solo pieces where a single actor breaks into multiple characters to new multi-character plays and even offbeat adaptations of classic works by Euripides or Shakespeare.

Hoch, who is dedicated to bringing a face and voice to multicultural identity, has been showcased on film, HBO and solo shows like "Some People," "Pot Melting" and "Jails, Hospitals and Hip Hop." "Till the Break of Dawn" marks his first multi-character play, though it is still centered on hip-hop culture. Hoch is not in the cast, but performs double-duty as playwright and director.

"A lot of folks think hip-hop theater has got to have break-dancing, rap music, or that a graffiti artist has to do the set," Hoch said in an interview with amNewYork last week. "To me, at the end of the day, a hip-hop play is like any kind of theater, whatever the form, but with issues that are specific to the hip-hop generation."

"Till the Break of Dawn" is a character study of several young music artists from Brooklyn who travel down to Cuba for a hip-hop festival, where they meet two American expatriates. Dana, played by Gwendolen Hardwick, is a former Black Power movement leader who has lived in Cuba since escaping from prison. She is, by far, the play's most compelling character.

But for the most part, "Till the Break of Dawn" is a mess. It feels like a mishmash of monologues and forced plot devices. Hoch needs a new director, someone who can bring out stronger performances from the cast while also helping Hoch revise the play.

There is definitely potential here. Hoch's views on the complexities of hip-hop, commerce, ethnicity, post-9/11 New York and internet culture are here, but some major reconstructive surgery will be necessary.

Till the Break of Dawn At Abrons Arts Center, through Oct. 21. Tue-Fri 8pm; Sat 2, 8pm; Sun 2pm; $15-35. 466 Grand St, 212-352-3101