Last
night, my
wife took me to see Movin' Out at the Pantages
Theater. A couple of years back, we saw Mamma
Mia and both thoroughly enjoyed it, and considering
that we like Billy Joel's music better than ABBA's,
I was certain we would enjoy this even more. Or
so I thought.
Movin'
Out
was nothing like Mamma Mia, which was probably
the biggest source of disappointment. I was expecting
to see a musical--maybe even a fun one--with Billy Joel
songs intertwined in the plot. (You know, kind
of like a normal musical, but with songs I've actually
heard before!) What I got was an hour and 50 minutes
of modern dance.
Don't
get me wrong--the choreography was very well done.
Twyla Tharp has been doing this for roughly four decades,
so this should come as no surprise. But make no
mistake: this is not a musical. The actors
do not sing. The actors do not speak. Outside
of pantomime, the actors do not act. This is dance,
and that's all.
Now,
if I had been expecting an updated version of Swan
Lake, I probably would have been delightfully surprised,
but I was expecting something closer to Piano Man:
The Musical. I had no idea what was about
to hit me, and that was my problem. So, for those
of you thinking about seeing this show, now you know.
In fact, if anyone out there has a significant other
who has been trying to drag you to the ballet or opera
or some other "cultured" event, you may want
to use this opportunity to get him or her (okay, probably
her) off your back for a while. Consider it my
gift to you.
As
for the
music, overall it was good. The singer/pianist
sounded enough like Billy Joel to avoid being a distraction
(though he did take some unnecessary stylistic liberties
with a few of the songs). Interestingly, the band
was located on a catwalk, about 30 feet above the back
of the stage. This turned out to be a fantastic
idea, as it left the entire stage open for the performers,
yet still kept the band involved as a part of the performance.
This was much better than if they had been confined
to the orchestra pit, as I was able to entertain myself
by watching them when the show got boring. Incidentally,
I watched the band a lot. Don't tell my wife.
Perhaps
the biggest problem with Movin' Out was the
lack of a point. I don't mean like some deep revelation
or cosmic truth; I mean any point at all. The
show was essentially a random collage of dance routines,
haphazardly tied together by the scenery and costumes.
The most appropriate analogy I could think of was that
it was kind of like reading Slaughterhouse-Five
with half the pages missing. The "plot"
frenetically jumped from one time in the past to another,
there were war references scattered throughout the work,
there was just enough change of pace to keep one mildly
interested, yet, in the end, the story was almost impossible
to follow. (On second thought, perhaps it was
more like reading Slaughterhouse-Five with
none of the pages missing...)
Never
read Vonnegut? Okay, for the non-bookworms out
there, here's a different analogy: Do you remember
stereograms? Sure you do, you just don't know
that's what they're called. They were those weird
art prints that came out in the early 90's--the ones
that appeared to be a random pattern of colored squares,
but if you relaxed your focus in just the right way,
a 3-D picture of a whale or something would appear.
Remember those things? Well, Movin' Out
is just like that. If you blur your vision a little,
everything makes sense for a second or two, but after
a while, it hardly seems worth the effort.
Martell
can be reached at martell@babblog.com.
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