Wade Preston Of Broadway’s ‘Movin’ Out’ Continues To Captivate Audiences

02.09.2023 - 11:13 / forbes.com

Playing a major role in a major Broadway show about a major musical luminary can present, well, major challenges for even the most talented performer. Just ask Wade Preston, who played “Piano Man” in Billy Joel and Twyla Tharp’s Broadway hit Movin’ Out for its entire run, and starred on and off in the national tours for the next few years, while still finding time to do occasional concerts with the Movin’ Out Band.

Preston recalls his circuitous path to securing the coveted role. “I was 20 when I landed a touring gig playing keyboards for Rock and Roll icon Chubby Checker,” he says. “I learned from that experience about the ebb and flow of a set list, something Chubby was great at, and how if you play upbeat song after upbeat song you can really drive an audience into an enthusiastic frenzy.”

The tour also introduced him to Southern California, a region of the country which he grew to love. He was raised in Massapequa Park, Long Island, New York, but after he left Chubby Checker he moved in with a friend in Marina del Rey, CA, and in a very short amount of time started playing up and down the coast as a solo act, which proved to be a tremendously valuable experience.

He was well known on the west coast as the preeminent boogie pianist, revered for his rollicking performances, stunning technical abilities, spirited versatile singing and sense of humor. He developed such a following that he was able to hire a band, the first Wade Preston Band, and that and the solo act was his main focus for many years, close to a decade and a half on the west coast.

“I was feeling frustrated in California,” he says, “and I felt like I had hit the ceiling of what I could accomplish on the west coast. There was plenty of work, but even though my original act had a pretty decent following and the clubs loved us, the record labels and management companies I solicited thought I was too eclectic for any commercial success. I was getting pretty depressed. So, I was really hoping, praying, that somehow I could share the gifts I felt like I was given with a larger audience. I felt like I was going to waste.”

Out of the blue his old friend Tommy Byrnes, Billy Joel’s guitarist, called and asked if he would like to play Billy Joel on Broadway. He says, “I’m not a dancer or an actor or anything, so when would a piano playing singer like me ever get a chance to perform on Broadway? So, naturally I accepted. The timing was quite perfect for me.”

Michael Cavanaugh was the number one guy from the beginning, but Preston was the best keyboard player to audition. “So they asked me to be the keyboard player in the band, with the unlikely chance that I could be a number three piano man if they ever needed one,” he says. Preston thought