By Rose Sopko
Quit school and dance. Live your life to a soundtrack of the music of the great Billy Joel. Well, don’t really quit school, but this is the only way to describe the feeling received after going to see “Movin’ Out.”
“Movin’ Out” is not your average musical. It is anything but average. Unlike most musicals, the cast doesn’t sing.
And they don’t talk either.
Their incredible dancing and movements serve as acting. And the music that guides their motions are 24 of Billy Joel’s greatest songs. “Movin’ Out” is the story of five high school friends from Long Island in the 1960s who get torn apart when the three men leave to serve in the Vietnam War. Brenda and Eddie (familiar names from Joel’s “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”) are high school sweethearts who have just broken up, which leaves room for fifth-wheel Tony to move in on Brenda. Judy and James (Sean Maurice Kelly and Julieta Gros) are the happy couple who have just gotten engaged. The show takes the audience through a whirlwind of emotions with these five characters, covering love, hate, suffering, pain, grief, ecstasy, death and everything in between.
Billy Joel and the incomparable choreographer and director Twyla Tharp worked together to combine their talents and conceived this part ballet, part Broadway show, minus dialogue.
Twyla Tharp is the famed choreographer of 125 dances, five Hollywood movies, director and choreographer of two Broadway shows, writer of two books and recipient of one Tony Award, two Emmy Awards and 17 honorary doctorates.
Billy Joel, the celebrated singer and songwriter, has had 33 Top 40 hits and 23 Grammy nominations, and in 1999 was inducted into the Rock ‘ Roll Hall of Fame. The most amazing thing about this show is the narrative quality of Joel’s music.
“Just the Way You Are” tells the audience of James’ and Judy’s everlasting love for each other. “We Didn’t Start the Fire” expresses the group’s despair over the backlash of the war. “The Stranger” conveys Judy’s intense grief after finding out about James’ fate. “Big Shot” shows Brenda and Tony’s (Holly Cruikshank and David Gomez) continuously troubled relationship. “Goodnight Saigon” is the background to Eddie’s (Ron Todorowski) travel back to the horrors of Vietnam in his mind.
The man who brings everything together however is Darren Holden, pianist and lead vocalist for the band. The band is set up above the stage, and they are responsible for creating the magic that moves the dancers. Holden is very close to sounding like Joel and his performance of all Joel’s classics are impeccable.
Tharp approached Joel with the idea for this show without ever meeting him, and he was instantly interested. Tharp fashioned the characters from popular Joel songs and had one special crowd she wanted to appeal to.
“I made this with one audience in mind, and that was the [Vietnam] vets,” Tharp said, in an interview for the Playbill.
Tharp wanted to honor the veterans whose lives were lost and tell the story of those who survived and came back with permanent emotional scarring. “Movin’ Out” opened on Broadway in October 2002 and has won two Tony Awards, for Best Choreography and Best Orchestrations.
“Movin’ Out” is on its first national tour and is being staged at the Colonial Theater, 106 Boylston St., March 2 to April 10.
