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"Billy Joel: In His Own Words"
Show of The Week: "Billy Joel: In His Own Words" (Australia)

By: Robin Oliver
(January 7th, 2004)

So you admire Billy Joel as the "Piano Man?" That kinda helps, because you're going to watch this program anyway. Probably stay to the extended "Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel)" at the end.

But please, no clapping hands in rhythmic support during some of the other songs, because alone on a stage with a wondrously amplified piano the technical secrets of which remain tight shut under the lid he doesn't get along with that. "You guys clap better than some," he tells the student body in the cavernous Irvine Auditorium at the University of Pennsylvania, but that's just his way of telling them to shut up.

You don't know Billy Joel? Not sure why "...taking a Greyhound on the Hudson River line..." should be so important (it almost rhymes, but that's not all).

Hmmmm... I guess you'd better tune in anyway, because if university lectures have come to this then something right is happening to education, and it's worth a look.

This is a television version of the touring Master Class devised by Joel, and it lives up to its name. He is looking for questions, but blows away what he terms as "juicy, gossipy blooby-joobity" by mocking the style of interviews to which he says he is usually subjected.

"This gig is about writing," he says. "Songwriting, music writing, coming up with the idea.

"It helps if you're going to write music to actually be a musician...although in rock and roll, that hasn't stopped a lot of people." He fields a question. How did he come to write the song "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)?" Turns out he was in Los Angeles, it was 1975 and a chronic financial crisis was seriously threatening to bring New York to its knees.

Los Angeles was chortling at the news. A loyal New Yorker, he packed up there and then and returned home.

Out of this story comes the superb "New York State of Mind" (there's the rhyme) and then he makes the Miami connection for us of course, with a tune or two to match. The Beatles gave him inspiration for the groundbreaking lyrics of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band." He begins singing "I read the news today, oh boy...", pounding the piano in a remarkable solo version of a song the Beatles needed the full force of special effects to achieve.

He talks about the mystical qualities of the lyrics: "'Four-hundred holes in Blackburn, Lancashire'. What? Where?" The audience is rapt. The lecture steadily builds to a finale, for everybody wants "Piano Man," but first Joel wants to tell how he wrote it after playing piano in a losers' bar in LA. It's a good story.

By then you will also know why there are two pianos on stage, one a gleaming Steinway with the lid removed and a dozen microphones which are hovering above.

This appealing program wins with its sense of fun and high level of intelligence, whatever musical prejudices we may bring to the gig.


"2-Part Harmony"
Billy Joel, 54, To Marry Katie Lee, 26

(January 16th, 2004)

Billy Joel and Katie Lee are making it a duet. The "Piano Man" sprung the question on her - along with a 5-carat rock - on St. Bart's.

Billy Joel clearly thinks his girlfriend, Katie Lee, has got a way about her. He just asked her to marry him.

Joel's rep confirms to us that the 54 year-old "Piano Man" proposed to the 26 year-old beauty while on holiday in St. Bart's. We hear he clinched the deal with a 5-carat diamond sparkler.

"They haven't set a date yet," a friend tells us, "but they couldn't be happier."

The couple were seen toasting on the island at Maya, where they shared their good news with Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Patrick Demarchelier.

The couple started dating last spring. Lee, who grew up in North Carolina, has been studying culinary arts. She recently signed on to chef George Hirsch's PBS show "George Hirsch: Living It Up!" as a restaurant correspondent.

Last summer, she learned about Long Island cuisine by slinging mackerel at a Bridgehampton fish shop and working as a hostess at Jeff and Eddie's restaurant in Sag Harbor. She recently moved into the "Movin' Out" composer's mansion in Oyster Bay.

Asked if she was having any problems joining Joel in the spotlight, she told The New York Times, "No, not really. The National Enquirer said I wanted to get pregnant. It's not true! Once you (start having) kids, that's it. You are a mother for life."

Joel married his business manager, Elizabeth Weber, in 1973; they divorced in 1982. He married supermodel Christie Brinkley in 1985 and they have a daughter, Alexa, 18. They split in 1994.

Brinkley told us yesterday: "I wish Kate and Billy every happiness."


"Billy Joel Engaged"
By: Josh Grossberg
(January 16th, 2004)

It looks like Billy Joel has finally found a new "Uptown Girl."

Ready to swap vows for a third time, the 54 year-old "Piano Man" popped the question recently to 22 year-old girlfriend Kate Lee while vacationing on the Caribbean Island of St. Bart's, Joel's representative confirms.

"So far a date has not been set," said publicist Claire Mercuri.

But it's obvious the West Virginia native had a way with Joel given that they didn't start the fire until last spring when he met her in New York City. The two have been inseparable ever since.

The impending nuptials came about after Joel sprang a 5-carat diamond rock on Lee. According to the New York Daily News, witnesses later spotted the happy twosome celebrating with pals Steve Martin, and Martin Short on the nearby island of Maya.

The couple then returned to Joel's posh digs in Oyster Bay, New York, where his fiancée has since moved in.

Before hooking up with the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, Lee studied the culinary arts and reportedly worked at two Long Island restaurants last summer: Jeff and Eddie's in Sag Harbor and at a Bridgehampton fish shop. She has since parlayed her newfound celebrity into a gig as a restaurant correspondent on George Hirsch's PBS show "Living It Up!."

Until meeting Lee, marriage hadn't happened for the longest time for Joel.

In 1973, the "Movin' Out" composer married his business manager Elizabeth Weber before divorcing in 1982. Then, giving hope to average-looking Joes everywhere, Joel tied the knot with supermodel Christie Brinkley in 1985. After having one child together, now 18 year-old daughter Alexa Ray, the two separated in 1994.

Brinkley could not be reached for comment, but she gave her blessing to the union yesterday.

"I wish Kate and Billy every happiness," she told the Daily News.

News of the engagement marks a welcomed turnaround for Joel.

In recent years, the entertainer has been plagued by a substance abuse problem, which resulted in him voluntarily checking into a rehab clinic in Connecticut in 2002. And just a year ago, he was hospitalized briefly after banging himself up pretty well in a car accident.


"Engaged"
By: Stephen M. Silverman
(January 16th, 2004)

"Piano Man" Billy Joel, 54, proposed to girlfriend Kate Lee, 26, while the two were vacationing in St. Bart's, his representative has confirmed to New York's Daily News. No wedding date has been set. Lee was working in a fish shop and as a restaurant hostess in the Hamptons when she met Joel last summer, says the Daily News. This will be his third marriage. His first, from 1973-1982, was to his business manager, Elizabeth Weber. He and supermodel Christie Brinkley were married from 1985-1994 and have a daughter, Alexa, 18.


"Singer Billy Joel Is Engaged"
By: Robert Kahn
(January 16th, 2004)

"She's Got A Way" - and now she's got a rock.

Billy Joel, 54, popped the question this week to girlfriend Kate Lee during a weeklong sojourn in St. Bart's.

Lee, 22, said yes, and has reportedly moved into the "Movin' Out" composer's North Shore mansion.

A representative for Joel confirmed the engagement Friday, and said no date has been set.

The pianist was returning from the Caribbean Friday and was not going to comment on the impending nuptials, Columbia Records representative Claire Mercuri said.

During their holiday, Lee was photographed sporting a 5-carat diamond.

Lee, who graduated from a Huntington, WV Catholic school, has been studying culinary arts. She is a correspondent for the PBS show "George Hirsch: Living It Up!" hosted by chef George Hirsch.

Lee and her friends were a fixture with Joel in the Hamptons last summer, turning up at major events like the opening weekend of polo season in Bridgehampton. Lee also worked part-time at Jeff and Eddie's restaurant in Sag Harbor, one of Joel's favorite eateries.

This week, they were seen celebrating on St. Bart's at hot nightspot Maya, a hangout of Steve Martin, Meg Ryan and Martin Short.

The marriage will be Joel's third. He split from his business manager Elizabeth Weber in 1982 and three years later married supermodel Christie Brinkley, the inspiration for such songs as "Uptown Girl" and "Tell Her About It." They divorced in 1994.

Alexa Ray, Joel's daughter with Brinkley, turned 18 on December 29th, 2003.

Brinkley's representative said "I wish Kate and Billy every happiness."


"Billy Joel Engaged"
(January 16th, 2004)

Billy Joel is in a marrying state of mind. The 54 year-old "Piano Man" has asked his 26 year-old girlfriend, Kate Lee, for her hand. Joel popped the question while the two were vacationing in St. Bart's, reportedly with a 5-carat rock. No date has been set yet. The couple has been dating since last spring. The marriage will be Joel's third. He was married for nine years to his business manager Elizabeth Weber and the same amount of time to supermodel Christie Brinkley, with whom he has one daughter.


"Billy Joel To Marry 26 Year-Old"
(January 16th, 2004)

Rocker Billy Joel has got engaged to his girlfriend Kate Lee - despite their 28-year age gap.

The "We Didn't Start The Fire" musician, 54, asked the 26 year-old Lee to marry him while on holiday in St. Bart's and gave her a 5-carat diamond ring to seal their engagement.

According to a friend, "They haven't set a date yet, but they couldn't be happier."

Joel and Lee - who's a restaurant correspondent for American PBS-TV show "Living It Up!" - began dating last spring.

The "Piano Man" star Joel was previously married to his business manager Elizabeth Weber and supermodel Christie Brinkley.

Yesterday, Brinkley said, "I wish Kate and Billy every happiness."


"Billy Joel To Wed"
(January 19th, 2004)

Billy Joel clearly thinks his girlfriend, Kate Lee, has a way about her.

The 54 year-old "Piano Man" proposed to the 26 year-old beauty while on holiday in St. Bart's in the Caribbean and clinched the deal with a 5-carat diamond sparkler.

"They haven't set a date yet, but they couldn't be happier," a friend said.

The couple started dating last year, and Ms. Lee recently moved into the "Movin' Out" composer's mansion in Oyster Bay.

Lee, who grew up in West Virginia, has been studying culinary arts.

She recently signed on to chef George Hirsch's PBS show "George Hirsch: Living It Up!" as a restaurant correspondent.

It will be Joel's third marriage.


"People In The News"
(January 19th, 2004)

Billy Joel has found himself another "Uptown Girl," emphasis on the girl: The Daily News reports that the 54 year-old is engaged to 26 year-old PBS restaurant correspondent Kate Lee.

Now, we love Billy, but it was barely more than a year ago that he was sighing about how lonely and meaningless his life was without a girlfriend (he had broken up with Trish Bergin). He started dating Lee last spring and proposed while vacationing in St. Bart's, giving her a 5-carat diamond, says the Daily News. Just remember, you're the "Piano Man," not the "On-The-Rebound Man."


"Anchors Away"
By: Richard Johnson
(January 19th, 2004)

Now that Billy Joel is marrying a brunette, he has no use for his "Red Head." The "Piano Man," 54, who recently got engaged to Kate Lee, 26, is selling his 65-foot motor yacht "Red Head" - named after flame-haired former girlfriend Carolyn Beegan - for $1.35 million. The refurbished trawler has two staterooms, crew quarters, large galley and main salon with 100 year-old pine paneling. "It's spacious, yet very cozy," a Joel pal told The Post's Braden Keil. The vessel is docked near his new home on Centre Island and listed with Northrop & Johnson brokers in Newport.


"Side Dishes"
By: George Rush & Joanna Molloy
(January 19th, 2004)

We were a little off when we said on Friday that Billy Joel's new fiancée, Kate Lee, was 26. In fact, the West Virginia beauty is 22, four years older than the 54 year-old Joel's daughter, Alexa, who just turned 18...


"Billy Joel Gets Engaged"
Singer/Songwriter Married Twice Before

(January 19th, 2004)

The "Piano Man" is about to hear the wedding march again.

According to The New York Daily News, Joel said he's become engaged to his girlfriend Kate Lee.

Joel is 54 and Lee is 26.

This will be Joel's third marriage. He was previously married to Elizabeth Weber and Christie Brinkley.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and multiple Grammy winner has recorded such hits as "Piano Man," "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)," "Just The Way You Are," "Big Shot," "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me" and "We Didn't Start The Fire."


"Billy Joel's Fiancée Is 22, Not 26"
(January 19th, 2004)

Veteran rocker Billy Joel's fiancée is even younger than previously believed - Kate Lee is 22 and not 26 as has been reported.

And the 54 year-old musician, who gave brunette Lee a 5-carat diamond ring to seal their engagement, is selling his luxury yacht "Red Head" for $1.35 million because it's named after his former ginger-haired lover Carolyn Beegan.

An insider told web-site "Page Six," "It's spacious, yet very cozy."


"South O' The Highway"
(January 23rd, 2004)

Celebrity chef George Hirsch of Sag Harbor is "George Hirsch: Living It Up!" with dining co-host Kate Lee in the quest of "Best Of" dining. "...She's got a way about her..." Ms. Lee spends her non-dining time boating, listening to great music with her fiancée, Billy Joel, reading and walking her beloved pug. Each show will include cooking from Chef George's Hamptons home, travel to world class resorts, visiting events such as the Hampton Classic Horse Show and highlighting objects of distinction such as Canyon Ranch, Steinway Pianos, Billy Joel's Shelter Island Runabouts and Princess Cruises, to name a few.


"Vietnam Stomp: Twyla Tharp/Billy Joel Homage To Soldiers Starts Its Tour of Duty In Detroit"
By: Martin F. Kohn
(January 25th, 2004)

Thinking outside the box - or more accurately, off the CD - director-choreographer Twyla Tharp approached Billy Joel with the idea of creating a Broadway show based on his songs. Joel recalls the conversation going something like this:

"She goes, 'Listen, what ever happened to Brenda and Eddie in the Italian restaurant?'

"And I said, 'I don't know.'

"She goes, 'What happened to Anthony from the grocery store?'

"I said, 'I don't know.'"

He knows now. Brenda, Eddie, Anthony, James, Judy - characters Joel invented in songs - live and breathe in "Movin' Out," the dance narrative that Tharp fashioned around more than two dozen songs, not necessarily related, that Joel wrote in the '70s, '80s and '90s. The show opened on Broadway in 2002, earned Tony Awards for Tharp and Joel and continues to run.

The national tour, which will ultimately play more than 30 cities before "Movin' Out" to Asia, begins Tuesday at Detroit's Fisher Theatre. Tharp, in town to launch the production, talked with the Free Press in person. Joel spoke by phone from New York.

"Movin' Out" is a show with no dialogue that speaks volumes. It tells its story through dance and song, with a singer-pianist and a rock band perched on a platform high above the dancers onstage.

The show's focal point is the Vietnam War, and Tharp says she made "Movin' Out" for vets. "No group of warriors has ever been drafted and then treated when they came back as though they'd been mercenaries - whether it's Huns or Visigoths or Romans, I don't care who. That's a major betrayal and I think it was very misguided and it was most unfortunate for that generation of men. It was a great tragedy."

Not many people invoke Huns and Visigoths while talking about a show that really rocks. But that's Tharp, an artist who has created dances to be performed to music as disparate as that of Beethoven, the Beach Boys, Philip Glass, Brahms, stride pianist Willie (The Lion) Smith and art rocker David Byrne.

In conceiving "Movin' Out," Tharp found a key piece of inspiration in a 3,000 year-old work of literature. She and Joel met on a Thursday and, over the weekend that followed, she listened to all his CDs. "On Monday I called him, I said, 'I have it, here's how it goes.'"

Then she said she read him a line: "Sing to me, muse, of the rage of Achilles." It is the beginning of Homer's "Iliad."

"And the muse," Tharp recalled telling Joel, "would be you, Billy, and the rage of Achilles would be a generation of American men, some of whom are from Long Island."

That's Joel's home turf.

"So then it was grounded," Tharp says, "and I knew where I had to take things."

Joel let her. "That," he says, "was the extent of my collaboration."


Insightful Innovation

But not the extent of his awareness. He appreciated, for instance, how Tharp gave as much weight to some of his lesser-known songs as she did to some of his hits. Tharp "used the more obscure material in a way that made it just as important as the hits, which I thought was very insightful because I worked just as hard on the pieces that weren't hits as the songs that were."

Fact is, says Joel, he wouldn't recognize a hit if it hit him. "I couldn't pick a hit if you threw it right at my face. I never picked singles, the record company picked the singles.

"Twyla was bright enough to see these characters emerging and re-emerging and lives being lived in album tracks that weren't necessarily in keeping with Billy Joel's hit singles - which was never really important to me," he says.

Tharp says what she did was take his songs as ceramic shards from which to create a whole pot. But it's not nearly so simple.

Directing dancers too young to remember much, if anything, about the war in Vietnam, Tharp had some teaching to do.

For both the Broadway and touring company she brought in researchers. She had Special Forces personnel do military drills and describe some of their experiences.

The dancers may have no words to speak but, "They're prepared just an actor is," says Tharp. The movements are their text.

While the audience hears no words from the dancers - except, briefly, a drill sergeant's cadence - the dancers themselves know words are there, "like with any monologue or scene," says Holly Cruikshank, who plays Brenda in the tour and was a member of the Broadway ensemble.

"'There's a subtext behind it where you have a backstory about your character," says Cruikshank.

Everybody onstage has a name, she says. Guided by Tharp, the dancers even know through the movements what they would be saying to each other if they did speak.


Engaging Hearts and Minds

Tharp is as rigorous on the body as she is on the mind. "Twyla's the hardest," says Cruikshank, whose Broadway credits include "Fosse" and Susan Stroman's "Contact." "Everyone in the company has a really strong ballet background. But she also requires you to dance off-balance, like completely throwing yourself around onstage."

Joel has noticed. "This isn't just flitting around on the stage," he observes. "These people are whacking into each other and spinning each other around and throwing each other all over the place. They do a thing where they spin Brenda around on her head - her head misses the stage by a half an inch and it freaks me out every time I see it."

"I'm worried about them," Joel adds. But danger and uncertainty are also thrilling.

"Isn't that part of rock and roll?" asks Joel. "Is he going to bite the head off the bird tonight? Will he slash his wrists? Will Iggy Pop stab himself with a peanut butter bottle?"

No birds or peanut butter bottles are harmed in "Movin' Out," which manages to generate a visceral excitement, nonetheless. It also engages hearts and minds, which is precisely what Tharp is aiming for.

She envisioned "Movin' Out" as a reconciliation, "as a sort of binding or at least acknowledging that that rift in our culture was over, that vision between the demonstrators and the vets - that the time had come to acknowledge that we could take it out from under the rug."

It's not a lesson about the past but if, once they catch their collective breath, playgoers start talking about it, Tharp would be pleased.

"We have history for fact," she says. "We have theatre for emotion. I like that."


"Singer Joel Engaged To Huntington Native Lee"
(January 25th, 2004)

Singer/songwriter Billy Joel is engaged to former Huntington resident Kate Lee, People Magazine reported this week.

Long Island's Newsday reported that the 54 year-old performer proposed to Lee while on holiday in St. Bart's, but according to Joel's representative, the couple has not set a date for a wedding. During their holiday, Lee was photographed sporting a 5-carat diamond, according to Newsday. People Magazine reported that Lee is a restaurant correspondent for the PBS show "Living It Up!"

The couple began dating last year, while Lee was a senior at Miami University near Oxford, Ohio. She is a 1999 graduate of St. Joseph High School in Huntington and earlier attended Cabell-Midland High School.

Joel, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, was married to his business manager Elizabeth Weber early in his career and then to supermodel Christie Brinkley in 1985. Joel and Brinkley separated in 1994.


"Joel Grateful For Hospital Hush-Hush"
By: Robert Kahn
(January 26th, 2004)

Rest easy. Billy Joel has not been reduced to shilling for local employers to turn a buck. That advertisement for Southampton Hospital in the January 15th, 2004 East Hampton Star, featuring glowing commentary from Hicksville's favorite son, was not an "endorsement," says his representative. It was just the "Piano Man's" way of saying thanks for keeping things hush-hush when he broke his wrist in September 2003. Joel needed five pins in his hand to set bones broken in an accident while inspecting construction at his new Oyster Bay abode. "I was admitted, treated and released without a great deal of publicity," Joel notes in the full-page print promo. "The head of the hospital asked Billy if he would give them a statement, and he did it as a show of gratitude," said Claire Mercuri of Columbia Records. "He didn't pay for the advertisement, and he didn't do it to become the poster child for Southampton Hospital. He was just glad they handled things in a subtle manner."


"Billy Joel and Twyla Tharp's 'Movin' Out' Launches Tour In Detroit, January 27th, 2004"
By: Ernio Hernandez
(January 27th, 2004)

The national tour for "Movin' Out," the Broadway musical collaboration between pop legend Billy Joel and choreographer Twyla Tharp, launches from Detroit's Fisher Theatre, January 27th, 2004. Darren Holden, understudy to original "Movin' Out" lead vocalist Michael Cavanaugh, will be the show's "Piano Man," with Matt Wilson also tickling the ivories at certain performances. Holly Cruikshank and Laurie Kanyok alternate as Brenda, David Gomez and Corbin Popp play Tony, and Brendan King and Ron Todorowski take on Eddie. Matthew Dibble performs as James and Julieta Gros plays Judy.

The premiere will play through February 15 at the Motor City Nederlander house before venturing off to venues in Buffalo, Hartford, Boston, Appleton, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Denver, Seattle and San Diego.

The cast also includes Alice Alyse, Kristine Bendul, Melanie Bergeron, Christopher Compton, Kim Craven, Jason DePinto, Tamara Dyke, Susanne Gorman, Cody Green, Charlie Hodges, Sean Maurice Kelly, Louise Madison, Barrett Martin, Eric Otto, Eric S. Robertson, Whitney Simler, Lynda Sing, Michael Snipe, Jr., Eric Peter Spear and Julie Voshell.

Producers of the Broadway run - James L. Nederlander, Hal Luftig, Scott E. Nederlander, Terry Allen Kramer, Clear Channel Entertainment and Emanuel Azenberg - will also present the tour.

The design team includes Santo Loquasto (scenic), Suzy Benzinger (costume), Donald Holder (lighting) and Brian Ruggles and Peter Fitzgerald (sound). Musical continuity and supervision is handled by Stuart Malina.

The bookless show, currently residing at Broadway's Richard Rodgers Theatre, uses Joel's song lyrics and Tharp's choreography to tell the story of five friends and lovers across three decades through love, war and loss. There is no dialogue and all songs are performed by the pianist-singer, who sings non-stop and heads an on-stage band during the show.

Following a tryout at Chicago's Shubert Theatre, the show officially opened on The Great White Way October 24th, 2002, following previews since September 30th, 2002. The new show took home the Tony Awards for Best Choreography (Tharp) and Orchestrations (Joel and Malina).

The songlist includes many of Joel's hit songs and even interpolates some of his classical work. "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me" functions as a sort of overture, introducing the characters. The story kicks off with "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant" and moves through other songs as the popular "We Didn't Start The Fire," "Big Shot," "Uptown Girl" and "Captain Jack," as well as more obscure early work like "James," "Summer, Highland Falls," and "Prelude/Angry Young Man."


"Family: Lee Won't Marry Joel In West Virginia"
By: Bob Withers
(January 29th, 2004)

This has to be an exciting time for city native Kate Lee, what with her recent engagement to singer/songwriter Billy Joel.

But both Lee and her family are keeping quiet about wedding plans, except that family members say it's unlikely the ceremony would take place here.

"She wants to keep her private life private," says Kim Becker, Lee's mother.

People magazine reported in its February 2nd, 2004 issue that Joel, 54, recently proposed to Lee, 22, while they were vacationing on St. Bart's in the Caribbean. The magazine said Lee accepted, and Newsday said Lee was photographed wearing a 5-carat diamond ring.

Lee is a 1999 graduate of St. Joseph Central Catholic High School, and earlier attended Cabell Midland High School. She graduated last year from Miami University near Oxford, Ohio.

She's currently a restaurant correspondent for the "George Hirsch: Living It Up!" television show on PBS. Lee's upcoming "Dining It Up!" segments will feature visits to the Camaje Bistro in New York City's Greenwich Village, Desversky Conference Centre on Long Island and aboard the Caribbean Princess, according to the cooking/fitness guru's web-site.