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Hit Billy Joel musical makes its Central Illinois debut

By Dan Craft
dcraft@pantagraph

Meet Amanda, who plays Brenda in Billy's musical. The occasion: the national touring edition of "Movin' Out," the highly successful, surprisingly well-reviewed theatrical leapfrogging through a sizable chunk of the Billy Joel songbook (well over two dozen songs).

The show makes its first-ever foray through Central Illinois in a three-day, five-performance stopover next weekend (Aug. 24 through 26) at the Peoria Civic Center Theater.

Moving to the music throughout, just the way she is, will be Amanda Kay, cast in one of the show's two female leads: Brenda, who gets to stop the show in its tracks with what may be its most crowd-pleasing number, "Uptown Girl."

Yes, she's that uptown girl who's been living in her uptown world.

Or is in her white bread world?

Or both?

Find out, as Kay kicks up her heels in high-flying style in a number she agrees is one of "Movin' Out's" signature moments.

"It's really weird, because my character, Brenda, is so similar to my personality, although I didn't know it going in," says Kay, whose exotic accent suggests an anything-but-all-American upbringing. "So it was easy for me to slip into character and do the acting."

Similarity No. 1: "Brenda is kind of like a tomboy, and so am I."

Similarity No. 2: "Brenda is sexy and flirtatious, and so am I."

Similarity No. 3: As noted, Brenda is an uptown girl, and so is she.

And we don't mean uptown Normal.

Amanda Kay was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa (source of her exotic accent), before transplanting herself to Milan, Italy, and, eventually, New York City.

She knows how to play the uptown girl, trust her.

Though classically trained in South Africa, she followed her high school education by transplanting herself to New York at the tender age of 18.

"It was a big culture shock, a huge culture shock," she agrees. "Anybody coming to New York, no matter where you're from, is going to be in for a culture shock."

The shock "forced me to grow up very, very fast."

But she was out to be a dancer, because "I knew it was in my blood," and blood is thicker than culture shock, as we all know.

Her New York beginnings with all uptown in the highest of style: dancing with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre and the modern dance-illusionist company MOMIX, with whom she toured for three years.

Eventually, "I kind of saw myself being based in Milan," where she decided to relocate.

"By chance, just before I was getting ready to leave for Milan, I jumped into an audition for 'Movin' Out.'"

Her boxes were to be shipped overseas. Kay was ready to follow them. She figured she didn't stand much of a chance landing a role in a musical that, to be frank, she knew very little about.

More to the point, "At that time, I was in a low period -- an out-of-work dancer who couldn't afford to see a Broadway show going for $100 per ticket."

Kay says she "knew a lot of the songs, and when I started dancing to them, I remember having listened to them on the radio."

Much to her shock, two days after she auditioned for the show she knew little about, "I got a callback for the (female lead) role of Brenda."

At which point she was heading for her new digs in Milan. Along with her Italian fiancé.

"OK," she thought, "I guess I'll have to go to Milan and then come back to America."

And stay awhile.

Kay has no regrets, though, seeing how "Movin' Out" can only be catnip for a dancer: Its choreographer is the legendary modern dance queen Twyla Tharp, who oversaw the touring edition's rehearsals.

Since there is no script or live singing by the characters, only dancing and movement ... that dancing and movement had better be pretty darned expressive.

In a recent review of the new production, New York Daily News critic Phil Roura deemed it "stunning, spectacular, brilliant," even though "none of these words seem an adequate description."

The narrative follows the '60s fortunes of five friends from Long Island whose lives and loves are altered by the specter of the Vietnam War.

Interestingly, while the narrative arc is new, all the characters and their names come from Joel's songs, including Brenda and her beau Eddie, who are the subjects of "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant"; Tony and Sgt. O'Leary, who first crossed paths in the show's namesake song, "Movin' Out"; Judy, from "Why, Judy, Why"; and James from, yes, "James."

The show debuted on Broadway in 2002 and enjoyed a successful three-year stand. Though Tharp's choreography gives the five characters their means of emotional expression, there is a live singer holding court on stage: a Joel surrogate, dubbed The Piano Man, played by Matthew Friedman, a New York-based singer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist.

In addition to Kay's bring-the-house-down turn as the "Uptown Girl," Kay gets another show-stopper, via Joel's "Big Shot," about a Vietnam vet's troubled homecoming, complete with stylized, choreographed fight scenes.

Brenda is playing the uptown girl again, trying to make the young man jealous in a nightclub setting. See, he's "going off and dancing with the other ladies, so I start doing a number with the other boys, and doing other crazy things, like getting thrown around on the stage."

This kind of highly physical performing isn't without its nightly risks, agrees Kay.

"I have to dance in these 2½-inch heel shoes," she begins a confessional on the precarious state of her oft-abused tendons.

The abuse adds a whole new layer of meaning to one of the show's Joel anthems, "Only the Good Die Young."

Joel may not have been thinking of death by 2½-inch heels when he penned the tune.

But the thought certainly crosses Kay's mind each night as she kicks high and comes down hard on those heels.

"They're evil," she agrees. "Really, and truly, evil."

At a glance

What: National touring company of "Movin' Out"

When: 8 p.m. Aug. 24 and 25, 2 p.m. Aug. 25 and 26, 7:30 p.m. Aug. 26

Where: Peoria Civic Center Theater, Peoria

Tickets: $51.50 to $76.50

Box office number: (309) 673-3200

The story

Though "Movin' Out" has no spoken dialogue passages, it does have a two-act story. It goes something like this:

Act I

Long Island in the 1960s. The king and queen of the prom, Brenda and Eddie, are finished, while forever sweethearts James and Judy are ready for remarriage. Their friend Tony is looking for that kind of love, and finds it with Brenda, who has become her own woman. War takes the men away from home, leaving the loved ones to pick up the pieces. James loses his life in combat, while Tony and Eddie return home broken as Judy grieves.

Act II

The vets try to cobble their lives back together. Tony can't seem to find a way to connect with Brenda, while Eddie can't connect with anyone. Spiraling into a lonely existence of drugs and self-loathing, Eddie takes a tour through the nightmare of his past, projecting Judy as his guide. By chance, he meets her jogging in the park. Meanwhile, Brenda and Tony rediscover their love. Will the old friends reunite to discover they've all come back home again?

The Billy songs

The song score for "Movin' Out" is a pastiche of around 30 Billy Joel songs, arranged to provide a narrative arc. If you like to brush up on your Billy tunes, here's the roster:

• "It's Still Rock 'n' Roll to Me"

• "Scenes From an Italian Restaurant"

• "Movin' Out"

• "Reverie"

• "Just the Way You Are"

• "The Longest Time"

• "Uptown Girl"

• "This Night"

• "Summer, Highland Falls"

• "Waltz (No. 1)"

• "We Didn't Start the Fire"

• "She's Got a Way"

• "The Stranger"

• "Elegy"

• "Invention in C Minor"

• "Angry Young Man"

• "Big Shot"

• "Big Man on Mulberry Street"

• "Captain Jack"

• "An Innocent Man"

• "Pressure"

• "Goodnight Saigon"

• "Air (Dublinesque)"

• "Shameless"

• "James"

• "The River of Dreams"

• "Keeping the Faith"

• "Only the Good Die Young"

• "I've Loved These Days"

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Take a look

South African-born dancer Amanda Kay has one of the two female leads in the national tour of the Billy Joel song-fest, "Movin' Out." Her big solo number, above, is set to the hit, "Uptown Girl."

In "Movin' Out," Amanda Kay plays Brenda, a woman experiencing personal turmoil circa the late 1960s.

Only the good die young in "Movin' Out," the hit Billy Joel musical, making its first-ever Central Illinois appearance at the Peoria Civic Center.

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