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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.
Best always,
Mark and Robert
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