INNER VIEW: MOVIN’ OUT rocks
with sizzling dance set to Billy Joel

Billy Joel music has been streaming from Kyle Martin’s fingers since he was a youngster, so it seems only fitting that Martin now gets paid to perform the tunes in front of audiences across the United States. 

“I started playing Billy Joel when I was a little kid,” says Martin, who performs lead vocals and piano in the band for the touring Broadway musical MOVIN’ OUT. “Whenever you’re a piano player and a singer, I mean, that’s obviously the first thing you go to—either that or Elton John.”

MOVIN’ OUT, the Tony Award-winning show conceived, choreographed, and directed by Twyla Tharp and based on twenty-four classic songs by Joel, makes its Penn State debut with three performances at 8 p.m. Friday, February 1, and 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, February 2, in Eisenhower Auditorium.

Dancers and a seven-member rock band share the stage to tell the story of MOVIN’ OUT. Martin, who has been part of the show since June 2007, and Matthew Friedman alternate shows in the role of the “Piano Man.”

“He was on the first national tour,” Martin says. “I started on the second national tour.”

Critics throughout the country have praised the show inspired by the music of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Joel, whose four-decade career has produced thirty-three Top Forty hits and twenty-three Grammy Award nominations.

“The supercharged passion of MOVIN’ OUT hits the theatre with the full-blown energy of a rock concert,” writes a San Francisco Chronicle critic. “Who will it appeal to?” asks a Buffalo News reviewer. “Anyone who loves Joel’s albums. Ditto for those who love dance. While I’m at it, let’s include anyone with a pulse.”

But not everyone agrees on what to call the show.

“Some people like to think of it as a rock ’n’ roll show set to dance. Others look at it as a dance show set to music. It’s really interesting because people see so many different things each time that they see it. When you talk to people who have seen it more than once—even three times, four times—they see something different each time,” says Martin, speaking by phone from a tour stop in Wilmington, Delaware.

Tharp, attracted to the energy of his melodies, had been dancing to Joel’s music in her studio since the 1970s. Her son eventually suggested she create a production based on Joel’s tunes. She loved the idea so much that she collected six dancers, all who would later perform in the Broadway cast, and choreographed several pieces to Joel’s music.

She contacted Joel through his agent and invited him to watch a videotape of what she had wrought. After watching the tape, he immediately agreed to the project. A day later he sent Tharp recordings of all of his songs, along with permission to use the ones she wanted in the show. He also gave Tharp the freedom to invent full lives for the characters he created in songs such as “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.”

“I love ‘Scenes from an Italian Restaurant.’ I think that’s one of my favorites, just because it’s a fun song to play. And there’s about three different sections of it. Each part is just great, it runs from jazz to real up pop to a really big ending,” Martin says.

“People who love Billy Joel music, myself included, love this musical just because he’s such a great storyteller. I love singing Billy Joel songs because he is that great storyteller, but he also rocks. He creates just awesome music,” Martin insists. “Getting up there every single night, night after night, you just don’t get sick of these songs. They are fantastic. They get the crowd going. Just the fact that there’s a storyline that kind of goes along with it, you know, it’s absolutely mind blowing.”

The story is told completely through dance and music with no dialogue. “The movement and the action tell the story,” says Tharp, who created her company Twyla Tharp Dance in 1965 and has choreographed more than 135 works. “The experience, the emotional resonance, comes from action rather than language.”

MOVIN’ OUT is a tale of five friends through two turbulent decades that change them and the world around them. Songs such as “It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me,” “Uptown Girl,” “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” “She’s Got a Way,” “Captain Jack,” “Angry Young Man, and “Pressure” come together to weave a musical backdrop that complements Tharp’s innovative choreography. The songs and dance take audiences through a poignant narrative comprised of three main elements: post-World War II idealism, the Vietnam War and its subsequent unrest, and, finally, survival.

MOVIN’ OUT’s main characters come from Joel’s lyrics. There’s Brenda and Eddie from “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,” Tony and Sergeant O’Leary from “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song),” Judy from “Why, Judy, Why,” and the title character from “James.” A synopsis of the plot is included at the end of this article.

“This show has so much energy in it. You know, it creates such a power, an emotional power,” says Martin, who when he’s not on stage works as a music pastor at Sunset Christian Center, a congregation of more than 2,000 people in the northern California city of Rocklin. “You go through the whole range of emotions throughout the whole show—everything from love, to sadness and despair, to a great sense of redemption and passion. You run the gamut of emotions, which I think connects to the audience in a big way.”

The show features a variety of contemporary dance styles. The role of Eddie is so physically demanding that it takes four alternating dancers to play the part.

“I think one of my favorite dances to sing to and to watch is the song ‘Shameless’” Martin says. “‘Shameless’ is known as a Garth Brooks song, and so it takes people back. ‘This is Billy Joel?’ Yeah, actually he covered it first on the Storm Front album. And that dance is probably one of the most passionate dances between Tony and Brenda. Tony from the song ‘Movin’ Out.’ And so they both get together in the end and make up and reconcile. And so it’s a very contemporary dance, but it is also very passionate. Twyla Tharp does just a fabulous job in choreographing this.”

That fabulous choreography would be nowhere, though, without a hot band. “We have a guitarist, a bass player, a drummer, myself or whoever’s playing the ‘Piano Man,’ we have a keyboardist who’s our musical director, and then two sax players,” Martin points out. “They’re a very amazing band. Every night our guitar player Johan [Nilson]…gives every bit of himself up there on that stage, so watch him carefully when you’re out there. He’ll give you quite a show. The band itself we’ve jelled together, we get along together, you know, which is kind of rare in a lot of rock bands. We all hang out together. It’s great.”

MOVIN’ OUT appeals to a broad swath of people beyond just devotees of musical theatre, dance, and Joel’s rock ’n’ roll. One group of fans, however, stands out from the rest.

“The whole storyline is set in the Vietnam era. I found that this story also touches a lot of vets who have been in a war—Vietnam War, Iraq War, whatever,” Martin says. “We’ve had a lot of great reaction from people in the military regarding this show, just because it reminds them so much of that wartime era. …That whole song ‘Good Night Saigon,’ and ‘we will all go down together,’ you know, there’s people in tears from that song, and lives that have been broken apart but have come back together. It speaks to a lot of various people, but I think even more so to people in our military.”

The Broadway production of MOVIN’ OUT played for more than three years, closing on December 11, 2005, after twenty-eight previews and 1,303 regular performances. It joined the pantheon of great Broadway dance musicals when it surpassed the runs of Contact, Fosse, and Bring in ’Da Noise/Bring in ’Da Funk. The show earned two 2003 Tony Awards—one each for Tharp (best choreography) and Joel (best orchestrations).

As is the case with many baby boomers—and plenty of younger Americans—Joel’s music has been an important part of the soundtrack of Martin’s life.

“Every single part of my life, you know, it’s like Billy has been there,” he says. “It’s really interesting, even though I’ve never met him.”

Martin had hoped for a meeting when, as luck would have it, MOVIN’ OUT was in Atlantic City at the same time Joel was playing at a venue across the street.

“I was definitely bummed that I didn’t get a chance to meet him,” Martin recalls. “Hopefully, along the road one time or two, I’ll be able to get a chance to shake his hand, get a picture with him, and just say how much I really enjoy his music.”

AmeriServ Bank sponsors the presentation. WTAJ-TV 10 and 95.3 3WZ are the media sponsors. Artistic Viewpoints, an informal moderated discussion featuring a visiting artist, is offered in Eisenhower Auditorium one hour before each performance and is free for ticket holders. Artistic Viewpoints regularly fills to capacity. Seating is available on a first-arrival basis.

---

MOVIN’ OUT synopsis

ACT I

Long Island, New York, in the 1960s. Brenda and Eddie, the queen and the king of the prom, are finished, while forever sweethearts James and Judy are ready to get married. Their friend, Tony, is looking for that kind of love and finds it with Brenda, who has become her own woman. War takes the men away from home, leaving their loved ones to pick up the pieces. James loses his life in combat. Tony and Eddie return home broken as Judy grieves.

ACT II

The veterans try to cobble their lives back together. Tony can’t seem to find a way to reconnect with Brenda, while Eddie can’t connect with anyone. Spiraling into a lonely existence of drugs and self-loathing, Eddie takes a tour through a nightmare of his past, projecting Judy as his guide. By chance, he encounters Judy jogging in the park, and her forgiveness allows him to finally set his life back on track. Brenda and Tony rediscover the love needed to heal their wounds. The friends reunite to discover they have all found their way back home.