Editor’s note: “Movin’ Out returns to the Buell Theatre June 13-18. Here is John Moore’s recap of the “story,” along with a song list. It was first published May 23, 2004.
Movin’ what?
“Movin’ Out” sounds like the most incongruous musical in Broadway history: Pulsating Billy Joel rock ‘n’ roll set to ballet dancing by avante-garde choreographer Twyla Tharp?
Yet somehow, it works.
Tharp’s ballet intertwines the characters and scenarios from 28 of Joel’s pop tunes into one cohesive story involving five Long Island friends from the late 1960s through the mid-’80s. If you know Joel’s music, these are characters you already know, too, such as Brenda and Eddie (from the song “Movin’ Out”).
This nonstop, sweaty ballet is performed with no dialogue as a 10-person rock band plays, in effect, a Joel tribute concert.
The songs are not sung by the dancers in the cast but by a singer called the Piano Man (Darren Holden). He fronts the band, which is
placed on a high platform that is physically detached from the dancers on stage but always visible to the audience.
The action begins with the breakup of Brenda and Eddie, the king and queen of the high-school prom. Friends James and Judy are ready for marriage. Brenda falls in love with Tony before the war takes all three men to Vietnam, where James is killed.
Tony and Eddie return, broken, and Eddie falls into a downward spiral of drugs and self-hatred. In a chance encounter with Judy, he finds forgiveness and a new love. Meanwhile, Brenda and Tony eventually find happiness together.
Song order
1. Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
2. Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)
3. Reverie
4. Just the Way You Are
5. The Longest Time
6. Uptown Girl
7. This Night
8. Summer, Highland Falls
9. Waltz (No. 1)
10. We Didn’t Start the Fire
11. She’s Got a Way
12. The Stranger
13. Elegy
14. Invention in C Minor
15. Angry Young Man
16. Big Shot
17. Big Man on Mulberry Street
18. Captain Jack
19. An Innocent Man
20. Pressure
21. Goodnight Saigon
22. Air (Dublinesque)
23. Shameless
24. James
25-27. The River of Dreams/Keeping the Faith/Only
28. I’ve Loved These Days/Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
