Review of Kasim in Movin’ Out
I went to see Kasim in Movin’ Out in his performance on Monday 27th December. This was his third out of six performances this week and I thought he put on a great show! The main lead vocalist / pianist Michael Cavanaugh didn’t play this performance but instead Wade Preston took over that role and he was really excellent - I even thought he played sang some of the Billy Joel songs better than when I saw Billy Joel in concert!

My one over-riding memory of this musical though will be the fact that it seemed strange to me that the people on stage don't sing! I expected a musical to include the actors / dancers to sing but it was mainly the guy on the piano singing (with some very distinct background vocals from Kasim, amongst others!). The person behind me said that it was the best musical she'd ever seen as she left the theatre but it appeared to me to be a band playing Billy Joel songs with some dancing below!

I also found the story very difficult to follow. I’ll freely admit that a lot of my time I wasn’t really watching the dancing but even when I did, other than the part when one guy died in battle, I still couldn’t always work out what was going on despite having read the synopsis of the musical! The dancing itself was excellent - even all the dancers in the chorus had distinct roles to play and each had their own time in the spotlight. There was also a lot of the twirling girls around in the air and throwing them around type which is very dramatic! However I very much doubt that anyone who hadn’t read the synopsis would know what was happening on stage by the dancing alone.

Before I saw the show I wondered (worried!) about how much or how little Kasim’s personality would be allowed to shine on stage. From seeing Kasim having to stand in a box at the Todd Rundgren Liars gigs, I wasn’t looking forward to seeing another show where he was greatly restricted but I’m sure that he took this role knowing this and it was obviously still Kasim on stage. He may only be able to make limited or little eye contact with the audience but there’s still no mistaking his mannerisms on stage! At the end of this performance, when the band are lowered again onto the stage, a couple of the dancers shook hands with Kasim and his personality came across then.

I’m really glad that I was lucky enough that Kasim was playing performances in a week when I already had plans to visit America so that I was able to see him in Movin’ Out and this means that he can now add a Broadway show credit to his resume which surely must now cover the whole spectrum of the music business from solo work to soft rock to heavy rock to Broadway!