Billy Joel had deliberate to be within the viewers for the opening evening of the Tribeca Pageant to look at the world premiere of a brand new documentary about his tumultuous rise to the highest of the charts

However the singer, who was lately recognized with a mind dysfunction often called Regular Stress Hydrocephalus (NPH), was compelled to skip Wednesday’s glitzy screening of “Billy Joel: And So It Goes.” Susan Lacy and Jessica Levin, the movie’s administrators, assured the viewers that Joel is assured that he’ll return to the stage.

“He might be again,” Lacy mentioned. She additionally shared a brief message from the music legend. “Getting outdated sucks, however it’s nonetheless preferable to getting cremated,” Joel’s notice learn.

After going public along with his well being points, Joel lately introduced he was cancelling 17 reveals he booked at stadiums throughout North America and England whereas he underwent “particular bodily remedy.”

“Billy Joel: And So It Goes” supplies an in-depth take a look at the singer’s struggles to interrupt into the mainstream and, a number of hit data later, his conflicted emotions about superstar. It contains archival footage and pictures of performances, house motion pictures and interviews with Joel and different members of his social and inventive circles. It’s a bunch that encompasses Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Pink, Garth Brooks, and Elizabeth Weber, Joel’s ex-wife and former supervisor. The movie additionally supplies the backstory behind some Joel’s most enduring songs, corresponding to ”Piano Man,” “New York State of Thoughts,” and “Simply the Approach You Are.”

Lacy mentioned that Joel instructed the filmmakers to “be sincere.”

“It wasn’t all the time simple, however he peeled again the layers of his music and his life with braveness, humor and vulnerability,” she mentioned. “Irrespective of the place you’re from, Billy’s music reaches throughout the geography and generations, and on this more and more fractured world, it’s a privilege to rejoice an artist whose music has linked us for thus lengthy.”

Of their introductory remarks, Tribeca co-founders Robert De Niro and Jane Rosenthal hailed Joel as an encapsulation of the 5 borough spirit that the pageant celebrates.

“Billy could also be thought-about the poet laureate of New York,” De Niro mentioned. “You are feeling the essence of our metropolis in his lyrics.”

The premiere was held on the Beacon Theatre with an afterparty at Tavern on the Inexperienced. This 12 months’s Tribeca lineup contains documentaries on legendary reporter Barbara Walters, restauranteur Nobu Matsuhisa, and “One thing Stunning,” a “visible album” that was co-directed by Miley Cyrus. There are additionally talks with Sean Penn, Ellen Pompeo and Bryan Cranston, in addition to reunions with the casts of “Meet the Mother and father” and “On line casino.”

Following its Tribeca screening, “Billy Joel: And So It Goes” will debut on HBO and be accessible to stream on Max this summer time. The pageant solely confirmed the primary a part of the two-part documentary.

“They’d not allow us to keep within the theater longer than two and a half hours,” Levin defined.