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'Movin' Out' of a War that Devastated a GenerationModern Jazz-Rock Ballet About Vietnam WarBy Lucy Komisar
Tharp's fluid style works for this story, though one misses the kind of witty jagged motions common in other pieces. One exception occurs when Eddie, in a stunning, joyous sequence in Central Park, seems to be running forward as he moves backward. The music is the rock style of Billy Joel, sung by Michael Cavanaugh. I can't comment on it, since I find rock a boring noise. (Jazz is something else.) A major drawback for anyone who has not become partially deaf through previous exposure is the decibel level, which at an early performance evoked the earsplitting intensity of warplanes. A return visit found the sound reduced. Still, better to be prepared. Fighter pilots wear earplugs. If you don't have a set, keeping your fingers in your ears also works. "Movin' Out." Conceived, choreographed & directed by Twyla Tharp. Music & lyrics by Billy Joel. Starring John Selya, Elizabeth Parkinson, Keith Roberts, Ashley Tuttle, Scott Wise, Benjamin G. Bowman, Michael Cavanaugh, Andrew Allagree, Mark Arvin, Karine Bageot, Aliane Baquerot, Alexander Brady, Holly Cruikshank, Ron De Jesus, Melissa Downey, Pascale Faye, Scott Fowler, David Gomez, Laurie Kanyok, Rod McCune, Jill Nicklaus, Rika Okamoto, Meg Paul, Wade Preston, Lawrence Rabson, Dana Stackpole, John J. Todd. Richard Rodgers Theatre, 226 W. 46 St. Mon-Sat 8, Wed & Sat 2. Running time: 2 hrs. $40-$100. 212-307-4100. http://www.movinoutonbroadway.com/. Images by Joan Marcus. |
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There was never a better time to remind the American
public that war destroys the fighters as well as the targets. Twyla Tharp's
jazzy rock ballet follows five working-class youths in the 1960's who sign
up for the Vietnam War as an act of patriotism and adventure. 
The three boys (John Selya, Benjamin G. Bowman and
Keith Roberts) go to war, and they end up either dead, or on drugs,
disoriented and emotionally detached from each other and "normal" lives. The
girls (Elizabeth Parkinson and Ashley Tuttle) also pay an emotional price,
and then there's the detritus of the Saigon "bar girls" that the U.S. army
considered appropriate R&R for the boys.
Tharp's powerful leaps and twirls express the high
spirits and energy of youth. Selya as the central character, Eddie, evinces
a glorious exuberance.
And then comes the war, a screaming drill sergeant
(Scott Wise), frenetic soldiers, and helicopters whose noise makes them seem
to be careening through the theater. It's a brilliantly horrific war, with
bullets as trajectories of light, and the sudden clammy, twists and
contortions of the dead who are then wrapped in plastic and numbered. Later
they will arise in memory from the grave, reminding the survivors of how
young the slaughtered were. Those who survived the horror almost envy the
dead: having escaped from the war, they find body and spirit ravaged by
drugs.