SoHo Playhouse Extends Baba Brinkman's RAP GUIDE TO…

Rap artist, writer, and theater performer Baba Brinkman has been wowing audiences for ten years with his imaginative and award-winning Rap Guide to... series, in which he takes ideas from science and philosophy and presents them in an unforgettable platform: Hip-Hop. The critically-acclaimed series is now running?through?April 9th.

Baba started his series in 2009 with Rap Guide to Evolution, a "peer-reviewed rap" manifesto on the legacy of Charles Darwin and the surprising power of his theory to make sense of human origins and behavior. The show was created to complement a book written by UK microbiologist Dr. Mark Pallen, and was performed as part of the Bicentennial Cambridge Darwin Festival. Those performances were described by Science Magazine as "mesmerizing... this would probably do more to convince school children of evolution's validity than any BBC or PBS special could." What started as a passion project became a critic's pick courtesy of The New York Times, who called the sold-out show "Astonishing and brilliant... with fizzing energy and spell-binding charisma." Time Out New York gave it four stars, calling it "Totally original and thought-provoking." Rap Guide to Evolution went on to receive a Drama Desk nomination for "Unique Theatrical Experience".

Over the past 10 years, Brinkman has collaborated with scientists in a range of fields to expand his initial runaway hit into a full-fledged series, tackling the most challenging questions of our age. With six productions under his belt to date, Brinkman has become a mainstay in New York's off-Broadway theater scene, a cerebral counterpart to the likes of Blue Man Group and Stomp, rapping his way through topics ranging from climate change to cognitive neuroscience, receiving critical acclaim and cosigns from popular scholars like Neil DeGrasse Tyson, Deepak Chopra, and Bill Nye.

Seeing a demand for something beyond individual limited runs, SoHo Playhouse Artistic Director Darren Lee Cole is delighted to include Evolution, Climate Chaos, and Consciousness in the theater's offerings this winter. On the need for a three show cycle, Cole said: "All this year while Consciousness was running, audience members would tell me 'Amazing, we love it! It's just too bad we missed his other rap guides..." Cole, who directed Brinkman's rap guides to Religion, Climate Chaos, and Consciousness, says he hopes to make the series an ongoing feature at the Soho Playhouse. "After the success of Hannah Gadsby's Nanette and with the upcoming run of Fleabag, we're all about disruptive, provocative work here at the Playhouse. I just hope we can add Religion to the rap guide series as well in 2019!"

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