Two Interviews with performers from "Movin' Out":
Movin' Well John Selya puts Twyla Tharp's dances to Billy Joel's music and steps into a nomination. By Blake Green for Newsday
Just as there's a story stitching together the Billy Joel songs in Twyla Tharp's Broadway musical "Movin' Out," there's a definite motif to the photomontage in John Selya's dressing room at the Richard Rodgers Theatre.
Selya is the bounding and boundless dancer who stars as Eddie, a macho Long Islander who flashes about in a '65 Mustang convertible, then goes to Vietnam and returns dispirited and drug-addicted. But he manages to get his act together in time for the show's soaring, happy ending. His intense, exuberant performance has been nominated for a Tony in the leading actor in a musical category.
The other afternoon, Selya, a muscular guy with liquid brown eyes and a sly sense of humor, sat backstage surrounded by the photos of such far-flung types as Jeff Van Gundy, Bob Marley and Vincent van Gogh and talked about what connected them. Greatness is definitely in the mix - and, yes, Joel's mug is up there, too.
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Brenda and Eddie - and Tony? Elizabeth Parkinson has danced her way from the Tampa Bay area to Broadway. For her performance in the Billy Joel-infused Movin' Out, she is nominated for a Tony Award tonight.
By MARY JANE PARK for The St Petersburg Times (Florida)
St. Petersburg native Elizabeth Parkinson got her start in the city in ballet, but she has gained national fame - and her first Tony nomination - for her starring role in the Broadway dance-musical Movin' Out.
Tonight she'll be in Radio City Music Hall, from which the program is being broadcast.
The hit show combines Billy Joel's pop music and Twyla Tharp's modern choreography. Parkinson, 38, plays Brenda the prom queen (as in Brenda and Eddie from Joel's song Scenes From an Italian Restaurant). The show's premise raised some eyebrows when news of it broke, but Movin' Out is a popular and critical success.
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