Reviews 2005
Reviews 2005
✭✭✭✩✩
conceived and directed by Twyla Tharp
Mirvish Productions, Canon Theatre, Toronto
November 25-December 31, 2005
"Physically Movin’, Not Emotionally"
What you get out of “Movin’ Out”, renowned choreographer Twyla Tharp’s so-called “dance musical” from 2002 to songs by Billy Joel, depends on what you expect from it. If you like modern dance, you will love this display of Tharp’s signature style flawlessly executed by a first-rate cast. If you like Billy Joel, you will get to hear an hour and a half of his music performed live with the accompanying dance. If you like theatre, you may be frustrated by a fairly routine story explored with little depth.
The programme for the show says “Movin’ Out: A New Musical”. That is a deliberate misuse of the word “musical”. An entertainment in which the characters dance but do not sing is a ballet. Obviously, the producers are afraid of scaring away potential viewers who go to musicals but would never be caught dead at a “ballet”. Yet, a ballet is exactly what “Movin’ Out” is. Many reviewers have tried to relate “Movin’ Out” to the so-called “jukebox” or “catalogue” musicals like “Mamma Mia” in which the back catalogue of a singer or group stitched together to create a story. Once you realize that “Movin’ Out” is a ballet, the speciousness of the argument becomes plain, since for decades new ballets have been created based on sequences of pre-existing material. Michael Fokine’s “Les Sylphides” (1909) based on Chopin’s piano music or Kenneth MacMillan’s “Elite Syncopations” (1974) based on Scott Joplin’s rags are just two examples.
Twyla Tharp uses 30 of Billy Joel’s songs and classical piano pieces to tell the story of five friends growing up on Long Island in the 1960s. The happy relationship of James and Judy is contrasted with the breakup of Brenda and Eddie and Brenda’s linking up with Tony. The three men go off to fight in Vietnam, but only Eddie and Tony return. The vets’ trauma, Brenda’s wild life and Judy’s grief prevent the four from coming together. Rather unbelievably, everything works out in the end and we have two happy couples, Tony and Brenda and Eddie and Judy.
What is missing from the piece is any sense of irony. It views the Vietnam War only as something to get over. While the show details the negative effects the war has on those who return, the happy ending ignores how profound those effects are and trivializes the action. Indeed, for Tharp’s purposes the three men could just as well have been in a car crash that two of them survived. Besides this, Tharp does not have, say, British choreographer Matthew Bourne’s gift for narrative where every dance sequence moves the action forward. Rather, Tharp treats each of the songs as a discreet dance piece much more along the lines of classical ballet. The most dramatically effective sequence, danced to “She’s Got a Way”, parallels Brenda alone in a bar in the States with Tony alone in a bar in Saigon, each tempted but trying to fend off advances from the opposite sex.
Aside from its narrative limitations, Tharp’s choreography is thrilling. Her style combines ballet with all forms of dance from modern to jazz, ballroom to acrobatics. In fact, she identifies each of the four main characters with different kinds of dance. Judy is most closely related to classic ballet since she is the only one who goes on pointe and performs a “pas de bourrée couru”. The contrasts in Brenda’s personality are revealed through long-limbed jazz dances moves alternating with the body-popping of Sixties go-go dancers. Tharp shows a certain rigidity in Tony’s personality through his frequent habit of extending his leg without flexing his foot, as if he is always holding something inside. Eddie’s volatile personality comes out in his rapid pirouettes and acrobatics including multiple forward flips. In pas de deux Tharp shows the relationship of two characters. When the contented James and Judy dance in a beautiful sequence to “Just the Way You Are” their movements mirror each other. When Tony and Brenda finally manage to work out their difficulties to “Shameless”, Tony starts to adopt Brenda’s jazz dance style while she imitates his extensions with unflexed foot. By the end he extends his leg with his foot flexed.
The principals and corps are uniformly excellent. As Brenda, Holly Cruikshank is lithe and seductive but clearly expressed the neurosis behind Brenda’s desire to be free of all constraints. As Judy, Julieta Gros shows us a fragile, tightly wound figure who shatters under pressure. David Gomez’s smooth lines show Tony as both a romantic figure and an innocent, the one most eager to go to war and unsuited to Brenda’s shifts of mood. Matt Dibble makes a positive impression as James despite Tharp’s choreography that has him so often blend in others. The real star of the show is Ron Todorowski as Eddie. His combination of effortless precision and jaw-dropping athleticism is amazing and he approaches Tharp’s increasingly demanding choreography for as if it were a joy to show off what he can do. It’s no wonder he won the 2005 Helen Hayes Award for his performance of the role on Broadway.
At the piano Irish-born Darren Holden (who alternates with James Fox) comes directly from the Broadway production and heads the eight-piece band. He has a very similar vocal quality to Billy Joel, but with clearer diction, less occasional harshness, and with fewer distorted vowels. In many ways, his renditions are superior to Joel’s simply because you can understand every word.
Viewed simply as ballet, “Movin’ Out” is a electrifying, high energy work drawing on Tharp’s seemingly inexhaustible dance vocabulary. You will likely leave exhilarated by the dancing itself but wishing it were wedded to a more complex view of life. Should Tharp manage that in future, the result would be explosive.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Holly Cruikshank (foreground). ©Joan Marcus.
2005-12-06
Movin’ Out