Movin' Out brings Energy to Sun City AZ

Movin' Out
By LeeAnn Sharpe
First you take the music of Billy Joel, which is so woven into the American landscape it’s imbedded deep into your memory, as a fan or not. Then you take the talent of Twyla Tharp who conceived, directed, and choreographed “Movin' Out”, for which she won the 2003 Tony Award. Next a voice that takes Joel’s lyrics and music into a storyline with emotion. Finally, add the energy of a troupe of young dancers who seem to float and fly across the stage, using their bodies to tell the story. It’s a magical combination that had the audience captivated and cheering super human feats of endurance on Opening Night of “Movin' Out” at Sun City’s Maricopa County Event Center.
“Movin' Out” isn’t a musical in the sense that there are not actors speaking roles, but dancers, dancing to the music telling the story. There are characters and a story line which tells the story of five friends coming of age over three decades from the 60’s to the 80’s. And there's live music with an incredible band singing about 30 Billy Joel songs. “Movin' Out” is more a ballet, an extraordinary dance, rock, theatre infusion, thoroughly entertaining.
The dancing is non-stop and amazingly energetic for nearly two hours. The incredible energy, especially Eddie (Drew Heflin) and Tony (John Corsa), are like the energizer bunnies doing unbelievable feats of gymnastics, jumps, spins and lifts. These are superhuman dancers! “Movin' Out” has definitely been well cast with incredible talent.
Given an amazing catalog of music from Joel, the band took it to new heights with an inspired sax and the fabulous voice of Kyle Martin.
The only fault I can find is in the lighting throwing maximum wattage into the eyes of the audience, blinding this recent cataract removed reviewer into painful squinting to see several times, especially in the opening scene. My companion also commented he wished the lighting hadn’t been so extreme. The theatre also seemed to echo and on more than one occasion I turned around to see who was singing in the back of the theatre a step behind.
The storyline follows five characters from their 1960’s high school graduation, love found and lost, becoming soldiers, off the Vietnam where James dies in battle, the sadness of a soldiers funeral and the girlfriend left to mourn, the pain of vets readjusting to life at home, the nightmare of war haunting them, a drunken brawl, and finally their reunion years later. Read the plot synopsis in the Playbill, as there’s almost no spoken dialogue to help you follow the story and characters.
The long legs of Tony (John Corsa) in Scene 2: Tony Move Out, caught my attention and his legs and leaps kept me captivated throughout. Especially in Scene 10, when he danced to “Shameless” with Brenda (Amanda Kay). The sweetly sentimental pair of James (Eric Bourne) and Judy (Karolina Blonski) were delightful as the danced Scene 3: James and Judy are Forever to “Just the Way Your Are.” It wasn’t until Act II that Eddie (Drew Heflin) came to the forefront with his amazing gymnastic feats at an unbelievable pace that had the audience applauding during several numbers. How does he keep it up night after night? Actually there are 4 dancers in the program who take turns on different nights as Eddie (played by one of four dancers: Brett Emmons, Drew Heflin, Nicholas McGough, or Andrew Pirozzi).
The real star is the Piano Man Lead Vocalist Kyle Martin who gave voice to every scene almost non-stop. What stamina to sing at such a level emoting feeling and enthusiasm to propel the dancers and storyline forward for almost two hours. His voice is comfortable and embracing, with full definition of every word as it must to make the story understood. He has a beautiful voice that brings everything required to make this show a great success.
The rest of the band is excellent with kudos to the sax men Tim McNamara and John Isley.
“Movin' Out” is entertaining and musically satisfying leaving the audience uplifted and wishing they could bottle some of that energy!

Movin' Out ran for 1331 performances on Broadway.
Movin' Out ran two days at the Maricopa County Events Center, one night at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Phoenix and has shows scheduled for Oct 30th & 31st at the Mesa Arts Center.