Ever wonder what happened to Brenda and Eddie, the king and the queen of the prom?
They were the popular steadies, riding around with the car top down and the radio on. No one has ever looked finer.
Remember?
Listening to Billy Joel's anthemic "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" has never failed to evoke pictures in the listener's mind - perhaps actual memories -of life in the '60s. The song brings current twenty-somethings back in time, when love and great music battled the horrors of an unpopular war.
Which is why director/choreographer Twyla Tharp's bold new show, "Movin' Out," now at Shea's Performing Arts Center through Sunday, couldn't have come at a better time. While today's college student surely knows a thing or two about war that is - right or wrong - unpopular in some circles, life in the '60s and '70s is nothing more than a dream.
What "Movin' Out" essentially tries to do, is write the preceding chapters in the lives of Brenda, Eddie, Tony, Judy and James, and take that vicious trip down memory lane.
Tharp, who is known in performing arts circles as one of the premier interpreters of modern dance, has built an entire show on 26 of Joel's songs. Joining Brenda and Eddie are Tony (yanked right out of the title track), and James and Judy (pulled from the lesser-known "James").
Assuming the five have always been best friends - back when Joel was their age as well - the show picks up from the opening "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant" and jumps right into Tony, well - moving out. Within minutes, Brenda and Eddie are caput, and Tony snags Brenda before going off to Vietnam with James. Poor Judy is left a young widow.
It's "The O.C." meets "Forrest Gump," set on Long Island. Basically.
Of course, the storied casualties of the Vietnam War are not absent, as James is killed in battle and Tony and Eddie come back bewildered and distraught veterans. Where to go from here? Well, there's a reunion, resolved friendships and a big flashy finale. It is a musical, after all.
Well, to be accurate, it's a dance concert set to popular music, with only one on-stage singer (the incredible Darren Holden, who is also the lead pianist). Call it a musical, call it a dance play; it doesn't really matter. It's simply a brilliant spectacle of movement and music.
Tharp's choreography is at times erratic and spastic, while at others graceful and eloquent. There's no shortage of ballet, especially in Judy's (Julieta Gros) mournful "The Stranger," in which she tries to cope without her beloved James (Matthew Dibble). Laurie Kanyok as Brenda is the most energetic, shaking and shimmying like a "Hey Ya!" backup dancer. She steals the show without question, and glimmers every chance she gets.
While Tharp's ultimate storyline is neither deeply involving nor very unique, it does set up some interesting song choices.
Joel's anthems - "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant," "The Stranger," "Goodnight Saigon," not the mention the absent "Piano Man" - are theatrical enough on vinyl, so it seems likely that they would translate to the proscenium without pause.
"We Didn't Start the Fire," only offers its chorus (thank goodness not its endless verses), but still feels unnecessarily thrown in.
The same goes for an 11th hour medley of "River of Dreams/Keeping the Faith/Only the Good Die Young," which turns an otherwise artful evening of classical ballet and modern dance, into a karaoke bar's last call. Their inclusion seems only to create a sort of greatest hits nostalgia, rather than support the plot.
Given the high contrast of Tharp's conceptual dance style and Joel's free-for-all rock and roll, the show is still not a typical Broadway musical nor is it the most engaging.
But ultimately it's the power of a great tune that makes this unique show worth seeing. What more can be expected from the man who invited the world to pull up a chair to the piano, have a drink and share some stories?
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
