From the 1970s to the early 1990s, no one chronicled the ups and downs of Baby Boomer life quite like singer/songwriter Billy Joel. Whether capturing post-World War II idealism and subsequent Vietnam War-era unrest, or painting a picture of how young love and marriage give way to disillusionment and divorce, Joel’s songs told a vivid story of how people grow up and sometimes outgrow each other. When Joel joined forces with director/choreographer Twyla Tharp, they created something that defied categorization: Movin’ Out is not a jukebox musical in the vein of Mamma Mia!, nor is it a “dance play” like Susan Stroman’s Contact. It’s a deeply complex portrait of five friends told exclusively through movement, putting the lyrics of familiar pop songs in a haunting new context.
It’s also a highly demanding show, requiring dancers to rotate in and out of roles in order to give their bodies a rest. Ashlee Dupree alternates dancing the main women of the piece, Brenda and Judy.
“Brenda is kind of the tomboy in the beginning, who’s very perky and secure, and Judy is the All-American sweetheart who loves her boyfriend James,” Dupree says. “Brenda and Eddie get divorced in the very beginning [during ‘Scenes from an Italian Restaurant’], and she begins this journey towards becoming a beautiful young woman.” Judy goes through losing the love of her life and learning how to move on.
“It’s a hard show to get through every day, just getting off the bus,” Dupree says. “But once the music starts, it doesn’t matter if you’re sick or hurt, you just dance.”
Part of the magic of the show is that the dancers are accompanied by a live band. “You can feel the energy radiating from the stage,” Dupree says. “The music just pumps you up, grounds you. It’s a phenomenal pleasure dancing with them and for them.”
Dupree comes from a classical ballet background, so she loves being in a big Broadway show that doesn’t require her to sing and act, too. “I’m in my comfort zone,” she explains.
“[The show’s choreography] is more grounded than ballet,” she adds. “It’s easier to dance when you’re more grounded. Twyla Tharp does a lot of ballet choreography —Judy is on pointe in the show — but her choreography and dancing is from the soul. Everything has a meaning to it. Instead of just doing steps, you’re telling a story with your body.”
When she’s playing Brenda, her favorite number to dance is “Shameless,” which comes near the end of the show. “It’s so beautiful because of the story within it: It’s about Brenda and Tony reconnecting [after many years apart]. As Judy, I love doing ‘Stranger’ because the dancing is really thrashy and out of my element. And it’s so fast, you literally have to be on your toes the whole time.”
“Goodnight Saigon” is her favorite number to watch. “The lyrics make a lot of sense as to what’s going on now with this war,” she says. “It’s heartwrenching, and the men really get into it.”
Audiences tend to connect very deeply with the characters’ emotional lives, Dupree says. And they always ask how they do the show every night, because of its extreme physicality. But there’s one thing Dupree wants the audience to understand: “We’re having just as much fun as they are.”
Movin’ Out leaps onto the Fox stage May 1-3.
