Metal mania: 'The Aluminum Show' hits the Bedell Stage with lots of audience interaction

A different kind of metal show will enter the Bedell Performance Hall on Monday.

"The Aluminum Show," a dance show that uses aluminum sets, costumes and props to tell the story of a baby aluminum tube in search of its aluminum mommy and daddy tube, will be at 7:30 p.m.

The show debuted in Jerusalem at the Israel Festival in 2003 and has toured the Middle East and Europe. Originally, it was a string of segments of dances that incorporated aluminum pieces separated by a few moments of darkness to transition into the next piece. The show came to the U.S. in 2010. For the 2011 U.S. run, the creators added the plot line.

"It takes it on a completely different level," said Jeremy A. Towle, one of 10 American performers picked to be in the new show. "This time it actually connects everything together."

Towle plays a swing part in the show. He can cover four of the roles in case one of those four dancers cannot perform.

"There are eight dancers on stage, but there are 10 dancers total, so I jump in when needed," he said.

He can play the mommy tube, the daddy tube, the baby tube's best friend and the diva.

Towle said he enjoys family-oriented shows. He worked with Snappy Dance Theater in Boston and toured with The Doodlebops, a popular children's band. "The Aluminum Show" follows that light-hearted trend of performances.

"It's comforting and it's nice to make a kid laugh," he said

Towle said audiences love "Slinky Town," a part in the show with several slinkies singing popular songs like "Stayin' Alive."

"It's a fun one to do to hear them laugh," he said. "It's one of my favorites."

He said his absolute favorite part of the show, though, comes after the curtains have fallen when members of the cast come into the lobby to meet audience members and let them play with props or be inside the tubes.

But audiences get to participate long before the lobby post party.

"The entire fourth wall is gone," Towle said. "People come into the audience and out of the audience. We throw gigantic pillows and we have a gigantic pillow party."

The performers toss about 40 3-feet-by-7-feet aluminum pouches filled with air into the audience.

"It's one of the most enjoyable moments," he said. "To see old people become kids again."

They pull audience members onstage, shoot aluminum out of cannons, walk a giant aluminum air doll into the auditorium.

"Everything we do goes right into the audience, a lot of times," Towle said.

When it first started in Israel, "The Aluminum Show" used aluminum props, costumes and set pieces from abandoned factories or companies that were replacing a piece.

"When they first conceptualized the show, that's what they used," Towle said.

He said parts of the set are still found aluminum objects, but most of the other things are new parts. With a full Broadway set and a specific plot line, "it's a little more difficult to do that now," he said.

"We recycle all of the stuff that we throw into the audience," he said. "We bring it back again."

Workers with the show go into the seating areas to retrieve confetti, the pillows and other things tossed out there during the show.

"We try to recycle that way," he said.

Tickets to the aluminum show are $42 and $36. They are available at the River Campus box office, by calling 651-2265, 800-293-5949 or at www.metrotix.com.

charris@semissourian.com

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