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Calling
all lovers of Terpsichore: get thee to the
Richard Rodgers Theatre asnap. For it’s
exactly as Charles Isherwood suggested in
his Times review in yesterday’s
Arts&Leisure: to miss Twyla Tharp and Billy
Joel’s MOVIN’ OUT on B’way would be a crime,
for which the only punishment would be to
bang one’s head against the wall while
listening to “New York State of Mind” for
the next sixteen years with the hope that
the show might return.
But even so, it’s unlikely that the show’s
remounting could ever assemble a company of
dancers so singularly and collectively
talented. With their many years spent
dancing with the Joffrey, ABT, Paul Taylor,
Eliot Feld, Donald Byrd, David Parsons, as
well as Twyla Tharp’s own company, and
dozens of other dance companies across the
globe, these kids can move. Not only the
exceptional principals, such as Elizabeth
Parkinson, Keith Roberts, Ashley Tuttle,
upon whom much well-deserved praise has been
heaped, but the ensemble is equally gifted
(and here, particular mention must go to
Cody Green who nails his multiple roles with
a thrilling combination of both Fred
Astaire’s grace and Gene Kelly’s
athleticism). This is an ensemble able to
take over the principal roles, as several
such as Mr. Green have done, and still wow
the audience.
For this show is all about the dancers. What
a company. What bodies, what energy. And
right now, in this autumn of our nation’s
discontent, the story that this dance tells
– and believe me, it tells a most
heartbreaking tale – is more resonant than
ever before. You don’t have to have survived
the Vietnam era to understand the poignancy
of this story, or to feel the pain and the
horror (and often the joy as well) of these
characters as they whirl, glide, and gyrate
around the stage.
And when they couple-- And when they dance
as one-- Any aficionado of dance will feel
again that pull toward the stage and the
desire to have one’s body move as fluidly,
with as much exuberance, to defy gravity, to
shake it off and work it out. What joy to
have such incredible dancers on the Great
White Way – and to have a show which reminds
you, again, of the power of theatre to
resonate with the times and to encapsulate
the anger and the grief that these times
provoke within.
You have until the 11th of December to
witness this Terpsichorean orgy firsthand.
Anyone who loves dance must heed the call.
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