Review
● Broadway in Tucson/ A Nederlander Presentation presents "Movin' Out," a dance musical with the songs of Billy Joel, and choreography and direction by Twyla Tharp, at 7:30 tonight; 8 p.m. Friday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday at the Tucson Convention Center Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. Tickets are $22-$72. Call 321-1000 for reservations.
Peter Bourret was perfectly still during opening night of "Movin' Out."
After the first act, the Vietnam vet filled his cheeks with air and exhaled deeply. He quickly wiped a tear from his eye.
"It's like going into therapy and having the therapist kick your butt," said Bourret of the play that addresses a generation that sent men off to war and then brought them back to a country with closed arms.
Bourret shipped off to Vietnam in 1967, just before his 20th birthday. "My goal," he said, "was to turn 21."
Bourret, who was with the First Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, spent a little more than a year in the country. "I got shot at a lot," he recalled. "They missed. I walked out of there without a Purple Heart, but I probably should have been killed six different times."
The war took its toll on Bourret, who said he killed a man before he had ever made love to a woman. He spent more than 20 years burying the memories, and the last 15 dealing with them.
"Movin' Out," which helped earn choreographer/director Twyla Tharp the President's Award from the Vietnam Veterans of America association - turned out to be a cathartic tool in dealing with that experience.
"There are a million pieces to the healing puzzle," the retired Sahuaro High School English teacher said.
"Movin' Out" is a dance musical that follows a group of friends through the 1960s and '70s as they get out of high school, fall in love, go off to war, and then try to heal.
The "We Didn't Start the Fire" scene in the first act, when the men are fighting a battle, shot Bourret right back to his days in Vietnam.
"I was there, but I wasn't," he said. "I was almost numb . . . and powerless over what was happening to me."
Flashing lights, the sound of helicopters, the drill instructor, the folding of the flag and handing it to a widow. The images were wrenching, he said.
"The scene with the flag, that's when the tears started flowing," he said. "War affects the people who are there. But all the families - they didn't ask for it, and they have to suffer the wounds, too."
"I want Billy Joel and Twyla Tharp to know what they did," he said after the play. "They helped me heal."
● Kathleen Allen
'Movin' Out' cathartic for
Vietnam vet
