Billy Joel's Shea concert documentary going well

BY GLENN GAMBOA | glenn.gamboa@newsday.com

July 18, 2008

Billy Joel plays Shea Stadium. (Newsday / Bruce Gilbert / July 16, 2008)

The production team chronicling the final concerts at Shea Stadium said the first half of Billy Joel's "Last Double Play at Shea" went off without a hitch and they are expecting things to go just as well at tonight's show.

"It was spectacular - beyond expectations," said Steve Cohen, who is co-producing a documentary on the event with Joel and Spitfire Pictures' Nigel Sinclair. "Out of all the years I've been working with Billy, I think it was the best culmination of everybody's talent I've seen. Everybody brought it."

The documentary team has been following Joel for the past three months as he prepared for the shows and will continue filming at Shea Stadium through its destruction this fall, Cohen said.

"Billy made it very clear he wanted to do a legitimate documentary and not a concert film or a biopic. He really wanted to document the event and document the history."

Producers are hoping the documentary, "Last Play at Shea" - directed by Greg Whiteley and Jon Small - will be in theaters by the end of 2009.

Cohen said Joel and the producers were so pleased with Wednesday's show that there would be few changes. "We'll tweak things a little bit and we will have a whole new set of guests," he said. "But the show definitely worked and when we know we've got something good, we're going to lock it in and not overthink it."