Half musical, half  ballet, Movin’ Out only loosely follows a plot, includes only a few lines of dialog and hardly even gives us our characters’ names. Yet it was catapulted forward without missing a beat during a limited run at the Academy of Music last week.
    Renowned choreographer Twyla Tharp is one of the few artists I’ve seen give an edge to Frank Sinatra’s work, displayed during Pennsylvania Ballet’s “Nine Sinatra Songs”  in February. If she could make Ol’ Blue Eyes bite, then the music of Billy Joel — much of it already full of poetically raw material, often hidden under the deceptively lyrical nature of his songwriting — must have seemed an easy feat in comparison.
    Ms. Tharp’s choreography is edgy, athletic and biting as she weaves together two decades’ worth of Mr. Joel’s songwriting, tracking the journey of several friends from post-World War II euphoria, through the turbulent era of the Vietnam war, to the gathering of the pieces after the war. Ms. Tharp conceived of  the story line, with Mr. Joel’s permission and free access to all of his songs, only asking him one question: Did Brenda and Eddie, the two lovers calling it quits in “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant,” ever reconnect after their breakup? Mr. Joel didn’t have an answer, so Ms. Tharp moved ahead with her plot, sending Eddie, Tony and James to Vietnam, then charting their course back into society when they arrive home.    Although the Vietnam War creates a powerful backdrop against which to set a ballet-musical, Ms. Tharp’s choreography hardly needs drama to cobble it together. Backed with the familiar lyrics of Mr. Joel’s songwriting, it’s sometimes difficult to maintain the effort of following the narrative, rather than just settling into Ms. Tharp’s movement. As in Cabaret, where the band is as much part of the story as the actors on stage with them, Movin’ Out places its band front and center, on a raised second-story stage, from which we can see each musician. The band, headed by Piano Man Matthew Friedman, is an integral part of the show, and the musicians, many hand-picked for the original run by Mr. Joel himself, are flawless.
    While prominence has been given to these musicians, and one must remember that the original inspiration for the show was the collection of songs penned by Billy Joel over the years, sometimes it’s difficult not to settle into the comfortable familiarity of songs like “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” “Innocent Man” and “River of Dreams,” overlooking the first-rate live performances that are happening in front of you.
    For this, one must both blame and commend Ms. Tharp, whose choreography is some of the most powerful on a musical theater stage since dance masters like Bob Fosse started toying with the line between musical and ballet. One of the forerunners in breaking from the conventional language of classical ballet, Ms. Tharp works in a highly athletic fusion of street jazz, ballet, modern and gymnastics, requiring dancers with strong physiques and clean lines. She choreographs in the frenetic language of charged emotion, depicting the uncontrollable emotions her characters are experiencing through violent, aggressive bodily inertia.
    Dancers meet and clash with a relentless frequency, made all the more intense by her tendency to choreograph en l’air with unmerciful frequency, requiring an unbelievable number of leaps and lifts.
    This one-two punch by two of America’s most celebrated performers is perhaps best enjoyed by one who is a fan of at least one of the artists, but there’s also something to be said for the way in which Movin’ Out brings a new energy to the dance-musical, allowing the story to be told through the powerful avenues of song and dance.

Lindsay Warner can be reached at culture@lindsaywarner.net.