All Products
Popular Music
DVD
Videos
Books


Search by Keywords:

 




Disclaimer: This web-site, in no way, has any direct
affiliation with: Billy Joel,
Columbia Records,
Sony Music, Joel Songs,
Inc., Maritime Music, Inc.,
or any other Billy Joel
related entity on the internet.
[ Cold Spring Harbor ]
[ Piano Man ]
[ Streetlife Serenade ]
[ Turnstiles ]
[ The Stranger ]
[ 52nd Street ]
[ Glass Houses ]
[ Songs In The Attic ]
[ The Nylon Curtain ]
[ An Innocent Man ]
[ Greatest Hits: Voume I & Volume II ]
[ The Bridge ]
[ Kohuept ]
[ Storm Front ]
[ River of Dreams ]
[ Greatest Hits: Volume III ]
[ 2000 Years: The Millennium Concert ]
[ The Ultimate Collection ]
[ The Essential Billy Joel ]
[ Fantasies & Delusions ]
[ Movin' Out: Original Cast Recording ]
[ The Harbor Sessions ]
[ 12 Gardens Live ]
[ The Hits ]




[ Live From Long Island ]
[ The Video Album: Volume I ]
[ The Video Album: Volume II ]
[ Live From Leningrad, USSR ]
[ A Matter of Trust ]
[ Live At Yankee Stadium ]
[ Eye of the Storm ]
[ Shades of Grey ]
[ Greatest Hits: Volume III ]
[ The Essential Video Collection ]
[ Rock Masters: Billy Joel ]
[ The Last Play at Shea ]



"Movin' Out' Is Movin' In To Orange County PAC"
The Musical Is Based On 24 Songs By Billy Joel

(June 2nd, 2005)

"Movin' Out," the Billy Joel and Twyla Tharp musical, will appear June 28th, 2005 through July 10th, 2005 in Segerstrom Hall of the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa.

"Movin' Out" is directed and choreographed by Twyla Tharp and based on 24 classic songs by Billy Joel.

Holly Cruikshank will play Brenda. She has performed on Broadway in "Movin' Out" (Brenda alternate, original Broadway cast ensemble) and in the Broadway production and National Tour of "Contact" (as "Girl In The Yellow Dress").

Matthew Dibble stars as James. He performed with the Royal Ballet (United Kingdom), was a founding member and principal dancer of K Ballet in Japan and last year worked with Twyla Tharp Dance.

David Gomez will play the part of Tony. Gomez performed on Broadway in "Movin' Out" (Tony alternate, original Broadway cast ensemble) and "Contact." His dance credits include Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and Dance Theatre Dayton.

Julieta Gros, stars in the role of Judy. Gros was born in Argentina and trained by Serrano and Tupin. At 14, she began touring the world as a professional in Julio Boca's Ballet Argentino. At 19, she became a principal with Inaqui Urlezaga's company.

Laurie Kanyok will also play the part of Brenda. She performed on Broadway in "Movin' Out" (Brenda alternate, original Broadway cast ensemble). She also appeared on Broadway and in the National Tour of "Fosse."

Brendan King will act the role of Eddie. He performed on Broadway in "Movin' Out" (Eddie alternate, original Broadway cast ensemble). He has performed all over the world with many recording artists.

Corbin Popp, also cast as Tony, performed on Broadway in "Movin' Out" (Tony alternate). He began his professional dance training at UNL and has since danced professionally with Omaha Theatre Company, the Sacramento Ballet and Complexions.

Rasta Thomas, who grew up in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is also cast as Eddie. Thomas has performed as a principal artist with Dance Theatre of Harlem, the Kirov and Joffrey Ballets and in "Movin' Out" (Eddie alternate) on Broadway.

Darren Holden will perform on the piano and lead vocals. He comes directly from the Broadway production of "Movin' Out." From Ireland, he began performing at age 13 and has had many Top Ten hits. He was the lead singer in the Broadway and touring productions of "Riverdance."

Matt Wilson, on piano and lead vocals, has performed solo in piano bars and toured with his own band. He performed at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia.


"Billy Joel Tunes Come To Portland In Broadway Musical"
Production Stars Irish Musician and "Riverdance" Star Darren Holden

By: Ron Cowan
(June 6th, 2005)

Darren Holden is Irish and sounds Irish, but he has something that hundreds of other would-be "Piano Men" didn't have when it came to casting the musical "Movin' Out."

The show, which brings together the music of singer/songwriter Billy Joel and the choreography of Twyla Tharp, opens Tuesday in Portland, with Holden as the Joel-like musical voice of the production.

"I did it, and I was just offered the job on the spot," he said of the audition. "At that point, they had auditioned 350 guys.

"They found people who played the piano and people who could sing. They couldn't find people who could do both."

The innovative dance musical depends heavily on Holden's role.

He is the singer and pianist with a small rock band on a bridge over the stage, performing 24 Joel songs as Tharp's dancers evoke the story of several characters over two turbulent decades.

There is no dialogue.

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.

The characters are not just taken from the songs; they are people Joel wrote about in the 1970s.

"It's an upbeat show," Holden said. "It's a deep show as well.

"It's an emotional roller coaster. If you get in on it at the start, you're going to be exhausted at the end."

The songs include "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me," "We Didn't Start The Fire" and "Pressure."

"He was a very, very big influence on me, growing up as a teenager," Holden said of Joel.

But Holden is born and bred Irish, from County Kilkenny and has that lilt in his voice.

A performer since age 13, he has had numerous Top 10 hits in Ireland and came to the United States as the lead singer in the Broadway and touring productions of the smash Irish dance musical "Riverdance."

"Movin' Out" put Holden back on Broadway but in a distinctly American show.

"I definitely don't try to sound like him," Holden said of Billy Joel. "I wasn't fulfilled by that."

So he talked to the producers, who agreed to give him a little personal leeway.

"I don't go a million miles away from Billy Joel's style, but I don't sound like him," Holden said. "It gives me more freedom to be myself."

Joel lent his expertise to Holden, though Holden had already done covers of Joel's work before taking this job.

"In New York, we hung out a couple of times," Holden said. "He just wanted me to keep my accent down."

Joel's advice, which Holden followed, was to watch episodes of "The Sopranos," the gangster drama with a hard-boiled New Jersey flavor.

"It's a real attitude kind of thing," Holden said.

Except for a couple of Joel's classical compositions, which allow the use of recordings, Holden is very much in the middle of the action throughout.

"There is a lot to do," he said. "It's a very enjoyable role.

Holden does five of the eight shows each week, with another pianist/singer taking the rest.

"I've been doing this for almost two years," he said. "You really get used to it.

"Most of the time, it's two of the quickest hours on stage."

The dancers are a big part of the show, too.

"There are about 30 dancers altogether," he said. "They are pretty extraordinary people.

"Twyla Tharp, the choreographer, comes out now and then to make sure things are ship-shape.

"A lot of the show is done with extraordinary lighting. It's like a KISS rock concert."

Holden spent seven months on Broadway with "Movin' Out" and now nearly a year and a half on the road.

"At the moment, I'm going to be in it until the end of next January," Holden said.

He figures it can only help his career.

"People are being introduced to me," Holden said. "I've got an album ('Live & Learn,' contemporary/traditional country) for sale outside the auditorium."

"I've been all over the United States. We've been to all the major towns or cities.

"There are plans to go to Japan. There are plans to take it to Hawaii."


"Twyla Tharp Puts The Moves On Billy Joel"
'Movin' Out' Places 'Piano Man''s Music On A Different Footing

By: Joseph Gallivan
(June 7th, 2005)

When choreographer Twyla Tharp decided to make a musical out of the songs of Billy Joel, she sat down one night and listened to every album straight through. That's not a fate one would wish on anyone, but Tharp is known for her toughness and determination.

What she came up with is "Movin' Out," where 24 songs are performed by a singer at a piano with a eight-piece band, while dancers present what is a essentially a ballet in front of them, based on characters derived from Joel's songs.

"For a dancer it's one of the best shows to be in," says David Gomez, who plays the part of Tony. "A lot of people have to drag their husband to the theater, but they often love it more than the wives."

He says Tharp's dance moves are "derived from ballet but are far more acrobatic, with more tricks and jumps, and the positions in the air are more awkward and cool" than ballet. He likes working with the grande dame, who was awarded the National Medal of The Arts in 2004.

"She's intense, but if you give 110 percent, then it's fine," Gomez says. "I remember once trying this jump and landing on my ass, and thinking, 'Oh, no, she's going to get really mad at me.' But she was like 'Great! You really went for it.'"

The dancing is physically hard, so it has two pairs of leads who do alternate shows.

Apparently, although he is a good storyteller, Billy Joel just handed her his oeuvre and told her to make her own story from it, so she plucks characters from here and there within the songs. The starting point is the question: "What happened to Brenda and Eddie after 'Scenes From An Italian Restaurant' ends?"

"My character is from the song 'Movin' Out,'" Gomez says. "You know, 'Anthony works in a grocery store, saving his pennies for some day....'" He says he saw Joel in tears at rehearsal.

The story's arc is standard baby boomerism: postwar idealism, Vietnam War and disillusionment. Tharp's own comment in the press release is telling, though: "The movement and action tell the story - the experience, the emotional resonance, comes from the action, rather than the language."

There's also the music.

Gomez, 33, acknowledges that he didn't grow up listening to Billy Joel (who has 23 Grammy nominations and can be heard in every supermarket and bar in America), but he has discovered that "the horns are unbelievable, the drums, the guitar - it's perfect to dance to."

His main partner in the show is Holly Cruikshank. "I'm 6 feet, 1 inch," he says, "but at audition Twyla was worried about me dancing with someone who's 6 feet, 3 inches in heels, because there are 15 or 20 overhead lifts in this."

It's also harder to literally sweep a very tall woman off her feet, but he did it. They became the matinee leads on Broadway and have now been on the road for 18 months.

Says Gomez: "She auditioned me with nine women, but with Holly I had the chemistry."


"Movin' Violation"
By: Grant Butler
(June 10th, 2005)

Dancemaker Twyla Tharp is one of the masters of the modern art form. Her resume is so long and storied that she should be mentioned in the same breath with such giants as Paul Taylor, Martha Graham and Trisha Brown.

So why on Earth is she slumming it with tin-eared tunesmith Billy Joel?

That's the question that crashes like a sledgehammer onto "Movin' Out," the jukebox musical/dance spectacle that opened Tuesday at Keller Auditorium and continues through this weekend. The show, which Tharp conceived, directed and choreographed, uses 24 Joel songs to tell the story of a group of friends who deal with love and loss in the Vietnam era. "Movin' Out" uses classically trained dancers who wordlessly act out the music performed by a Joel imitator and a small band that hovers above the action on a raised platform.

Joel was once a songwriter with tremendous promise. In the mid-'70s he recorded a series of well-crafted albums, with such songs as "Scenes From An Italian Restaurant," "The Stranger" and "Big Shot" that captured the more bewildering, self-indulgent aspects of the "Me Decade."

Unfortunately, only about half of "Movin' Out" is culled from this part of Joel's career. The rest is built on tunes from his sell-out era, when he married a supermodel and wrote thunderheaded ballads such as "An Innocent Man," vapid cotton-candy numbers like "Uptown Girl" and crass crimes like "We Didn't Start The Fire" (arguably as awful a song as Starship's "We Built This City," which last year was dubbed the worst rock song of all time by Blender magazine). It's the clueless inclusion of these wretched songs that robs "Movin' Out" of its power.

The dances that Tharp created have plenty of potential power. The lean, incredibly fit dancers have the athleticism needed for Tharp's high-powered spins, jut-kicks and muscle-bound leaps. The movement is so physically intense that the show uses two sets of dancers, giving fast-moving legs and arms time to recover. The opening-night cast was led by Brendan King and by Holly Cruikshank, who last thrilled audiences here in 2001 as the "Girl In The Yellow Dress in "Contact." These two capture the range of Tharp's style. In "Prelude/Angry Young Man," King dances with furious speed as he copes with the loss of a war comrade; in "She's Got A Way," Cruikshank moves with such stylized grace and romanticism that you start to fall in love with her.

But Tharp's movement sometimes matches Joel's music when it comes to dreadful excess. In "Captain Jack" - most likely Broadway's first production number about heroin addiction - she forces King through so many backflips and hand-stands that it feels like the grand finale of a high school cheerleading competition.

"Movin' Out" is sung entirely by the band's central "Piano Man," and that proved to be this production's weakest link. Fill-in singer Matt Wilson (Irishman Darren Holden, who's done this role in New York, was scheduled for Tuesday but was delayed by US Customs) was in thin voice, consistently flat and unable to land high notes - though it's doubtful a better singer could have made much more of something so soulless.

Ultimately, what makes "Movin' Out" so infuriating is that it forces you to consider what might have been. If Tharp was intent on creating a show built around a pop songbook, imagine what she might have created if she'd chosen a songwriter who truly understands the complexities of the heart - Bruce Springsteen, Joni Mitchell or even Elton John. Instead, she opted to be an "Uptown Girl." The result rings as hollow as the music it animates.


"Billy Joel Revue Succeeds With Brawn, Not Brains"
By: Karen D'Souza
(June 16th, 2005)

"Should I try to be a straight-A student?/If you are, then you think too much."

That's wisdom as handed down by Billy Joel in his baby-boomer anthem "It's Still Rock and Roll To Me." Choreographer Twyla Tharp clearly has taken that bit of Top 40 advice to heart in her Broadway smash "Movin' Out": She lulls the ear with the blue-collar bard's "greatest" hits and stuns the eye with the kinetic magic of modern dance but leaves the brain pretty much alone.

"Movin' Out" - trucked into the Center for the Performing Arts bythe American Musical Theatre of San Jose - does suck the audience in with sheer audio nostalgia. Tharp uses the hum recognition of such songs as "She's Got A Way" and "We Didn't Start The Fire" to chart the story of high school chums who lose their innocence in the age of Vietnam.

And the choreographer speaks volumes in body language. We get to know Brenda (the statuesque Holly Cruikshank) and Eddie (the gymnastic Brendan King), the prom king and queen, through back flips and swinging hips, not dialogue. Their movements pop with the pent-up hormonal rush of adolescence, the joy of bodies in motion, the ecstasy of sinews unleashed.

The show has its cheesy MTV-ish moments, when strobe lights and fog banks distract from the cast. But for the most part Tharp seduces us with taut hotties straining to the beat. She pushes her dancers way past the point of graceful; this is a carnal ballet of skin, muscles and sweat. And it's for bodies like these that spandex was invented.

It's when Tharp tries to dig deeper, to channel the chaotic soul of the '60s generation, that the show falls short.

The dance/theatre piece falters as the boys get sent off to Vietnam. In "Goodnight Saigon," Eddie watches his buddy James (Matthew Dibble) fall in battle. It should be a tragic moment, but since the characters are so thinly sketched that we scarcely can tell them apart, it's a little hard to mourn their deaths. "Movin' Out" lacks the psychological depth to fully probe themes as heady as war and loss.

But tapping into the catharsis of pop music (with Darren Holden as the "Piano Man") is another matter. Tharp knows how to let music set bodies on fire, which may well be the reason for this whole revival. Giving one of the most vigorous standing ovations in recent memory, Tuesday night's audience certainly seemed to be "Keeping The Faith."


"Tharp's Three Year-Old, 'Movin' Out,' Dances Past Long Run Musicals On Broadway"
By: Ernio Hernandez
(June 16th, 2005)

As the new Twyla Tharp/Bob Dylan project gets underway, the Tony Award-winning director/choreographer's collaboration with Billy Joel nears the end of its third year performing, having recently surpassed other dance-heavy, long-running Broadway shows. On June 11th, 2005 Movin' Out - playing on Broadway since October 24th, 2002, following a Chicago tryout (June 2004) - reached its 1,094th performance, edging its mark in theatre history past "Fosse" (which stands at 1093) and "Contact" (1010).

The dance musical also boasts most of its original cast - who have taken breaks here and there, some to have children, but returned - including Tony Award nominees John Selya, Elizabeth Parkinson, Keith Roberts, Ashley Tuttle, Michael Cavanaugh as well as Scott Wise, and Benjamin Bowman.

The current cast of "Movin' Out" also includes dancers Michael Balderrama, Timothy Bish, Christopher Body, Alexander Brady, Ian Carney, Ron DeJesus, Carolyn Doherty, Melissa Downey, Pascale Faye, Kurt Froman, Philip Gardner, Charlie Hodges, Lorin Latarro, Marty, Lawson, Brian Letendre, Tiger Martina, Mabel Modrono, Jill Nicklaus, Rika Okamoto, Eric Otto, Meg Paul, Justin Peck, Karine Plantadit-Bageot, Lawrence Rabson, Ron Todorowski and Jessica Walker with the band that features Wade Preston, Henry Haid, Tommy Byrnes, Kevin Osborne, Dennis Delgaudio, Greg Smith, Chuck Bürgi, John Scarpulla, Scott Kreitzer, and Barry Danielian.

Producers of the Broadway run - James Nederlander, Hal Luftig, Scott Nederlander, Terry Allen Kramer, Clear Channel Entertainment and Emanuel Azenberg - also present the still-running National Tour which launched January 26th, 2004. The tour recently earned the 2005 Touring Broadway Award for Best New Musical, also giving Tharp another win for Best Choreography.

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 Stuart 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." As a final curtain coda, Cavanaugh belts out the apropos "New York State of Mind."


"Music In Motion"
'Piano Man' and Tall Former Ballerina Enjoy Nonstop Action

By: Alessandra Djurklou
(June 27th, 2005)

Darren Holden was a former Irish teen idol who longed to be taken seriously in the music business. Holly Cruikshank was a ballerina told repeatedly that she was too tall for her profession. But in spite of these setbacks, their talent and ambition would help them move on - or in this case, move out.

The two are starring in the National Tour of Billy Joel and Twyla Tharp's musical "Movin' Out," which comes to the Orange County Performing Arts Center tonight for a two-week run. Cruikshank plays Brenda and Holden pounds out Joel's hits at the piano.

There is no dialogue in the show; the story is told entirely through dance, set to 26 Billy Joel songs, from "Just The Way You Are" to "The Longest Time" to "Uptown Girl' to "We Didn't Start The Fire."

But a lack of lines does not mean a lack of plot. The show, which spans two decades (the '60s and '70s), tells the story of five friends - James, Eddie, Tony, Judy, and Brenda. Eddie and Brenda are a couple, as are James and Judy. But Eddie and Brenda are not well matched, and it soon becomes clear that she and Tony have feelings for each other. But before the new couple can become truly established, the three men go off to fight in the Vietnam War. Only two come back. Will the remaining friends be able to pick up the pieces?

Twyla Tharp came up with the concept for "Movin" Out" in 2000. She wanted to tell a story, through dance, set to Joel's music. She called Joel, whom she had never met, and sent him a 20 minute video of dance set to his songs.

Joel, who had been approached many times with various ideas for musical treatments of his work, was really impressed with what Tharp had done.

"Billy's music is very kinetic, and it has a lot of what I think of as gut power," Tharp told the Press-Telegram in September, when the show premiered at the Pantages Theatre in Los Angeles, California. "He also has a classic sense of music construction, and he has a sense of melody."

The show opened on Broadway three years ago, and for a dancer who wants to be in musicals but has no desire to turn into a double threat, "Movin' Out" is ideal.

"It's a crazy combination," said Cruikshank, who understudied Brenda in the Broadway production and starred in the Los Angeles, California premiere. "The dancers don't have to sing. It's more like a rock ballet, and the band is on the stage with us."

Then there's the added attraction of getting to work with Tharp, whose choreography skills have made dancers flock to her in droves. But there's always a price to pay for working with the best.

"We're dancing nonstop," said Cruikshank. "The show is two hours long. Twyla Tharp pushes her dancers to the limit. There's ballet, jazz, gymnastics, modern dance - it's almost like a Cirque du Soleil show."

Tharp is not merciless, however. Since each show is so physically intense, there are two casts. Each performs four days a week, and Cruikshank shares her role with Laurie Kanyok.

Unlike the 6 foot tall, dark-haired Cruikshank, Kanyok is blonde and "regular height."

"Twyla doesn't typecast at all," said Cruikshank.

This is a relief, considering the Arizona native's height was a real handicap back in her ballet days.

"They just kept telling me I was too tall," said Cruikshank, adding that when she stands on her toes, as ballerinas often do, she's even taller.

Luckily for Cruikshank, "Movin' Out" is not the only rock ballet around these days. "Contact," though not set to music by a rock star like Billy Joel, is also all dance, all the time. Orange County audiences may remember Cruikshank as "The Girl In The Yellow Dress' a few seasons ago.

"I'm just so lucky they're making these dance shows," Cruikshank said.

"Movin' Out" also provides a great break for an aspiring piano player/singer who'd rather be recognized for his talent than his cuteness.

Holden was first picked by talent scouts in his native Ireland because he bore an uncanny resemblance to '70s dreamboat David Cassidy. Growing up in a music-loving household in County Kilkenny, Ireland, he started his career with renditions of "Rhinestone Cowboy' at age 3.

"Everybody who came into my parents" house were subjected to it," said Holden, adding that it was a great way to drive away unwanted company.

He taught himself piano at age 8, and by his teens was touring as a teen idol. But like the idol he resembled, he got sick of it pretty fast.

"I did it for three years, and ran," Holden said. "It was a great feeling, but at the end of the day, I was not getting respect. It's really hard to be a puppet."

Breaking away isn't always easy, but Holden found the change he needed in an unexpected venue - that of dance. "Riverdance," to be precise.

He was a lead singer in the otherwise dance-dominant hit show for three years, and when that wrapped, "Movin' Out" came along. Holden moved to New York after "Riverdance" to focus exclusively on his music. But two days after he got there, he got the call to be the "Piano Man," and he accepted.

"I loved Billy Joel music since I was a kid; he writes about all these situations in life," Holden said, adding that, with 26 songs to headline and an opportunity to play the piano, the show seemed like a natural choice.

"It's a happy coincidence for me to have been on two dance shows in a row," Holden said.

Like Cruikshank, Holden shares some of the intense workload with another pianist/singer, Matt Wilson. But he does most of the work, doing five of eight shows, including the opening show on each tour stop.

"I'm pretty religious about performing," he said.

When he is not on stage, he is taking care of his voice.

"I try to take care of myself as much as I can," Holden said. "I drink maybe a gallon of water a day, and eat honey."