CriticalDance Forum

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I saw this last week while in New York for a conference.

A week later I'm still undecided what to think of it. (The same thing happened to me with M. Bourne's Swan Lake - I was undecided, went back to see it, and decided I loved it).

The dancers are amazing - and's it truly a who's who in the ballet world; an incredible opportunity to see top dancers from different parts of the country on one stage.

The music is loud but the musicians talented, the set and lighting design simple yet dynamic and well thought out. The costumes I thought a little too pedestrian, but suitable to the tale they were telling.

The "story" seems to me a bit of a stretch, but pretty darn creative for pulling together such a string of different songs.

I was vastly entertained by the discussions of audience members around me. Some were expecting an evening of ballet and indulged in the balletomane's love of name & performance experience dropping - - some were expecting dancers who sing - - some were return viewers - - some left during intermission and I had a place to set my coat!

So, I would grade in the following manner:

Performance and Performer Energy - A+

Production Design - B

Production Execution - A

Variety of Audience - A

Mainstreaming Dance to Broadway - A+

Should you go see it? Yes.

The jinx continues...

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DANCE WITH ME
By BARBARA HOFFMAN for The NY Post
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February 10, 2003 -- THEY'RE hooking up, stepping out and making out at "Movin' Out" - and we're not just talking about what's happening onstage.
The show - which follows several friends through their teen years, Vietnam and their descent into decadence and recovery, all set to Billy Joel songs - has become Sweetheart Central.

Dancing together, though not necessarily with each other, are at least five real-life couples (only four of whom felt comfortable enough telling us about it).

"It's a pretty sexy show, so it's not difficult to fall in love," says Elizabeth Parkinson, who plays Eddie's Uptown Girl but goes home every night with Sgt. O'Leary - her husband of three years, Scott Wise.

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<small>[ 10 February 2003, 07:29 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

An article on one of the stars...
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From the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

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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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'Movin' Out' opens in Boston next weekend, and preview articles are appearing in the papers now.

From Marcia Siegel in the Boston Phoenix: Super Bowl dancing; Twyla Tharp takes Movin’ Out on the road

A blurb in the Boston Herald - Movin’ Out’, Movin’ On - mentions the show is opening and introduces two longer articles:

Larry Katz writes about Billy Joel in Billy Joel: In search of ‘that happy ending’

Terry Byrne writes about Twyla Tharp in Modern woman choreographs a modern story-driven ballet

From Joan Anderman in the Boston Globe: The piano man meets the choreographer

'Movin' Out' is great song and dance but falls short of drama
By Lawrence B. Johnson / The Detroit News

The hyphens line up like hurdles in the Twyla Tharp-Billy Joel dance-musical “Movin’ Out,” a conjunction of creative genius and mixed media that’s almost too much of two good things.

But the last and highest obstacle posed by this energetic, sexy Broadway hit is a conceptual stretch between the two acts that leaves “Movin’ Out” somewhere between variety show and theater as story telling, a kind of revue-drama.

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Enthusiastic reviews from the Boston papers....

From Ed Siegel in the Boston Globe: Plenty of big shots in 'Movin' Out' And from Terry Byrne in the Boston Herald: Tharp show always Movin'

From Iris Fanger in the Boston Phoenix:
Fabulous invalid - Twyla Tharp and Billy Joel heal America through dance