Movin' Out and Movin' On: Twyla Tharp and Billy Joel on Broadway

Movin' Out, a new dance musical conceived, choreographed, and directed by Twyla Tharp, based on the songs and music of Billy Joel, Shubert Theatre, Chicago, August 2002.

Since presenting her first work in 1965, choreographer Twyla Tharp has created dances in every major style, from avant-garde modern at the Judson Church to the more classically-based Push Comes to Shove for Mikhail Baryshnikov and American Ballet Theatre. Although her work has changed drastically from its iconoclastic roots, Tharp has nevertheless developed a unique personal style over the last four decades: a fusion of ballet, jazz, and social dance forms. Her interest in vintage popular culture is mirrored by her choice of music; she has choreographed to Jelly Roll Morton (Eight Jelly Rolls, 1971), the Beach Boys (Deuce Coupe, 1973), Frank Sinatra (Nine Sinatra Songs, 1982), and Paul Simon (Grand Pas:Rhythm of the Saints, 1991). She has also dabbled in nearly every theatrical medium, including Broadway, film, and television. Her newest offering, a full-length musical entitled Movin' Out, is a collaboration with legendary pop singer-songwriter Billy Joel. The show premiered with mixed results at Chicago's Shubert Theatre in preparation for its fall 2002 Broadway opening.

The first thing I noticed while waiting for the Shubert curtain to rise on August 28, 2002, was the age of the audience; there was no one over forty in the entire balcony. Although it was obviously the music and not the dance that drew these nostalgic twenty- and thirty-somethings, it was slightly refreshing not to be surrounded by elderly ladies, middle-aged tourists, and Broadway aficionados. Tharp's opening scene does not disappoint her core audience of Billy Joel worshippers. Illuminated in red and purple rock-concert lighting, Michael Cavanaugh and his band perform "Scenes from an Italian Restaurant" and ascend theatrically into the air as Joel's quintessential cop, Sergeant O'Leary (Broadway veteran Scott Wise), struts up and down the block wielding his nightstick. Suddenly a car pulls up and the main characters arrive: Eddie, Tony, James, Brenda, and Judy. The guys goof around in typical high school fashion while an enthusiastic ensemble of army recruits and cheerleaders march and bounce. By the end of this tumultuous sequence, Eddie and Brenda's marriage is over. Even though Movin' Out begins in the sixties, the initial fifties-style atmosphere is reminiscent of West Side Story.

Responding to complaints of confusion from both critics and audience members, Tharp instituted a series of changes to Act One that went into effect by mid-August. The opening scene was apparently re-choreographed to add clarity to the plot. However, if the narrative focus is supposed to be the fight between Brenda and Eddie, it is still somewhat obscured by the throng of Happy Days-like characters who upstage the main action. Another change was the cutting of the second number, danced by Eddie and Brenda to "I Go to Extremes," which was probably meant to clarify their relationship. As it is, the show moves straight into the title selection, a trio for Tony, Eddie, and James that combines classical turns and jumps with street gestures. The urban-style movement works well, but all those balletic preparations make a stiff counterpart to Joel's plucky lyrics. Scene four, James's proposal to Judy, is a tender duet with a cheesy (but nevertheless appropriate) moment in which James sinks to his knee and produces the engagement ring. In scene five, the sexy Brenda (Elizabeth Parkinson of the Joffrey Ballet) reappears and struts around Christie Brinkley-style while the boys gape from behind. Here Tharp has done her homework; everything from Parkinson's teasing demeanor to her white hat is straight out of the "Uptown Girl" video.

After a brilliantly danced solo of whip turns by Eddie (John Selya of American Ballet Theatre), the men follow their...