The Who’s “Tommy”

Posted by Gail M. Burns - July 2011

I hate it when I am called on to name my “Best Picks” for the upcoming season because I don’t have ESP and because I often get excited over obscure shows that interest no one but me. But mostly importantly because more often than not what looks lit a sure-fire hit in April turns out to be a big disappointment in July, and usually for reasons it was impossible to anticipate.

But Tommy proves the exception to that rule. The minute I heard that the first BTF production at The Colonial Theatre would be The Who’s Tommy starring Randy Harrison I said “Wow!” What a cool, bold choice of show! What a great way to build on the relationship that has developed between Harrison and the BTF. What a fabulous way to bring the theatrical riches – and potential – of this region to the attention of the movers and shakers of the theatre world.

Now that I have been there and seen that, I am happy to report that this production lived up to every bit of hype, hope, and expectation. It is daring, it is wonderfully entertaining, and it is thoroughly homegrown. It has the fingerprints of the BTF and Eric Hill all over it. This is not a bus-and-truck show hauled out to the sticks to amuse the locals, this is theatre by us, for us. This bodes very well indeed for the newly minted BTF/Colonial merger. More, more!

Tommy is a brilliant choice for three reasons: 1) Its fresh meat – nobody ever does it, 2) For nostalgic reasons it appeals to the regular older ticket buyers, 3) For the same reasons it rocked the Baby Boomers in 1969, it appeals to young people who don’t usually go to legit theatre. I cannot remember a time when I attended a performance with so many young people in the audience – not children but 12-25 year olds – that demographic every theatre is trying to capture and train to become the ticket-buyers and major donors of the future. They were there in droves and if this doesn’t hook them, nothing will!

I fell in love with the theatre at age 15 at a performance of a captivating rock musical, largely due to the appeal of a handsome, talented, and charismatic leading man. The excitement I remembered feeling then, I knew was in the house at Tommy. The audience was clapping and waving their arms in the air during the finale and just roared at the curtain call. This is a production that will seduce many young people into a life-long affair with the theatre, and that is wonderful. Even an old jaded biddy like me knows that magic when she encounters it, and I came away aware that I had witnessed an important milestone in the cultural life of my community.

Tommy was first released as a concept album by The Who in 1969. It was the first composition to call itself a “rock opera.” A film version was released in 1975. The stage version being presented at The Colonial wasn’t developed until 1993. Des McAnuff (1952- ) and Pete Townshend (1945-), who remains the primary composer of the work, created the stage musical, utilizing additional material by John Entwhistle (1944-2002), Keith Moon (1946-1978), and Sonny Boy Williamson (1899-1965).

(For some fascinating background material, I refer you to Jann Wenner’s 1968 interview with Pete Townshend for Rolling Stone magazine, in which Townshend speaks about the genesis of Tommy.)

So Tommy was a “period piece” by the time it reached the legit stage, and in fact its period was changed, updated from the post-World War I setting of the concept album to a post-World War II setting guaranteed to appeal to Boomers.

I confess that I had never listened to Tommy at all until recently ,and after I had listened to the first of the two CDs that comprise the concept album, I asked my husband if I really wanted to see a show that was, apparently, about the cruel and systematic abuse of a disabled child. He encouraged me to listen to the second CD, and I was relieved to learn that Tommy and Tommy had a happy ending, but the early storyline is the reason why this show isn’t performed by the usual array of high schools, colleges, and community theatres which glom on to hit musicals. This is serious, edgy stuff. And it is a Rock Opera with a capital R and a capital O. You need to have singers and musicians who are proficient in both those genres.

In this production Hill and choreographer Gerry McIntyre have staged the show to minimize violence and the sexual and physical abuse to the point of obliterating its impact. Still I understand why that is necessary. The young Tommy is played by Paige Scott (Tommy at age 4) and Connor McNinch (Tommy at age 10) and to see even obviously staged acts of aggression towards real live children would be horrific. But there are other instances where the children were not involved that I wished the creative had allowed the violence to look a bit more real.

I will not attempt to recount the plot of Tommy here. There are endless arguments about whether the piece actually qualifies as “opera” and the strongest argument in favor that I can put forward is that the plot makes no sense. (Isn’t that the ultimate definition of opera – lots of great music and no plot??) Things do happen in a more or less linear fashion, but The Who lost the point somewhere in the music.

Its really all about the music, and here that sounds just great. Musical Director Randy Redd heads a six piece pit band, featuring superior guitar work by Dave Brown. The entire cast sings wonderfully well, but Harrison is the clear stand out, making his demanding role look easy and enunciating every word. Not all of the cast have that clarity, and there is a grand tradition of incomprehensible lyrics among rock and folk musicians. Harrison strikes the perfect balance between a rock sound and a theatrical attention to the lyrics. This is especially important here since Tommy is sung through with no dialogue, little recitative, and none of those handy projected supertitles you get in grand opera.

The night I attended the sound system was seriously over-amplified of during the first act, to the point where the volume was painful and it was impossible to figure out where the voices were coming from and who was singing. The effect was literally that the entire cast was lip-synching, which is a terrible disservice to all those talented performers. Thankfully word must have gotten backstage and the amplification was perfectly modulated during the second act. While the Colonial is a large house for this region, it is not an enormous house by real world standards, and it is renowned for its excellent acoustics. The dizzying height and steepness of the balconies means that the theatre is not deep from the back of the stage to the back of the house and everyone is seated relatively close to the stage. Professional singers like Harrison and Angela Robinson who sang the Acid Queen, would not have needed any amplification at all if this hadn’t been a rock musical.

Aside from Harrison and Robinson, James Barry, a BTF regular, was impressive as Tommy’s father, Captain Walker, and Christopher Gurr was creepily cool as wicked Uncle Ernie. Jenny Powers was fine as Tommy’s mother, but I never really felt any connection to her character, which, as a mother myself, I certainly should.

The two young Tommys are real troupers amidst what must be a swirling cacophony of sound and light. I hope they wear earplugs!

Scenic Designer Gary M. English has filled the Colonial stage with industrial style scaffolding which gives Hill and McIntyre two levels to fill with movement, but what gives this production a real sense of size and scope are the lighting design by Matthew Adelson and the projections designed by Shawn E. Boyle. English has provided a huge round screen above the second level of the set on which Boyle blasts an array of images that continuously support and explain the narrative. At times Adelson has the whole theatre illuminated and radiating light, which is really breathtaking. The Colonial is a gorgeous house and Adelson makes the most of it.

At the end Hill has augmented the cast with a lively group of young people who dance in the aisles in iconic Flower Power regalia. I was going to joke that now I knew were all the period costumes that should have appeared in Moonchildren went, but of course there is a vast difference between 1965 America, where that play is set, and the 1968 Britain of Tommy‘s finale, with its Carnaby Street explosion of fashion and pop art. David Murin’s costumes for this show are a wonderful of realism and fantasy. They move well with the dancers and help anchor the chaos in the appropriate eras and settings.

If anyone had told you ten years ago that there would be two sold-out musicals and two straight plays running in downtown Pittsfield on the same July weekend you would have laughed, wouldn’t you? You would have had to because ten years ago there wasn’t a viable theatre in downtown Pittsfield, both The Colonial and the Union Street Theatre were derelict. The fact that Tommy is a hit is great, but the fact that its opening has firmly established Pittsfield as the theatrical hub of the Berkshires is astounding. This is the culmination of decades of work by hundreds of people who endured years of scorn and ridicule. I hope some of them are aware of how their hard work as paid off. To all of them, I raise my glass in admiration and gratitude.

Tommy is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea, and I would NOT recommend it for children under 12, I encourage you to take a chance – if tickets can even be obtained at this late date. Kate Maguire only made on mistake with this production – the run, a mere ten days, is waaaaay too short!

Click HERE for a complete photo album for this production.

The Berkshire Theatre Festival production of The Who’s Tommy runs July 7-16 at Colonial Theatre, 111 South Street, Pittsfield, MA). The show runs two hours with one intermission and is not for the very young or people who hate loud rock music. Tickets range from $49-$15 and may be purchased at either the BTF (413-298-5576) or The Colonial (413-997-4444) box office

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