Billy Joel

Is it bad to admit that I like Billy Joel? Old Billy Joel-70's and 80's Billy Joel, not anything since the mid-90's really. So I was thrilled when my friend L got us tickets to see Movin Out here in DC. Yes, I know everybody else saw it in New York a couple of years ago, but I don't live in New York and if I did, I could only afford those off-off Broadway shows that are held in a room in PS 128's basement-like where I saw the play Matt and Ben. Anyway, we went on Tuesday night and it was great. I knew what it was-a dance to the music of Billy Joel but L thought it was going to be more like Mamma Mia and that they would sing the songs. In any event, they did not sing-there was a platform up above the stage for the guy who DID do all the singing (and played the piano as well) and a band. The first half was good-but everyone intensified their efforts in the 2nd half and it was amazing. The dancers were better, the music was more intense-it just seemed like the everyone really tried a lot harder later in the show-it helped that the songs were more dramatic thasn in the first half-Goodnight Saigon V Only the Good Die Young? No comparison). And the dances were a great mix of classical and modern dance-they were often mixed within the same scene and often by the same dancer-it was interesting and cool. And the guy who sang and played the piano was great-he put a lot of heart into the songs in the 2nd half-it was interesting, because from where we sat, we could see him looking down aften at the dancers-like he was singing the soundtrack to their lives (which he was) and he wanted to see what they were doing. I will say I thought the whole Uptown Girl part was just wrong-that song is about Uptown NYC-where the Upper Class lives and in the dance, she was a tramp! Hanging out with mechanics from Jersey!Ignoring the fact that he wrote that song for Christie Brinkley, it still made very little sense. But the songs were great, the dancers were wonderful and a good time had by all.