Nylon Curtain Call

Billy Joel musical takes another bow

Comments (0) By Robrt L. Pela Thursday, Oct 18 2007

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Conceived by dance maven Twyla Tharp, Movin' Out is a jukebox musical welded together with Billy Joel songs and set in ´60s-era Long Island. No, seriously. Twyla Tharp and Billy Joel and a Vietnam War story involving people named Brenda and Eddie and James and Judy -- all familiar monikers to fans of Joel’s more famous pop hits, and brought to life here to sell tickets to a wide demographic: Joel fans, dance fans, musical-theater nerds, and bridge-and-tunnel folks who can’t get enough of Broadway shows made from old radio playlists. To be fair, Movin’ Out -- playing here as part of its recently launched second national tour -- is unusual in that, unlike a traditional book musical, it’s a series of interpretive dance pieces linked by a (slim) story. The vocals are provided by a pianist, who’s accompanied by a band perched on a platform overhead. Directed and choreographed by Tharp, the show opened on Broadway in 2002 at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, where it ran for 1,303 performances.
Tue., Oct. 23; Wed., Oct. 24; Thu., Oct. 25; Fri., Oct. 26; Sat., Oct. 27; Sun., Oct. 28, 2007