Report by Trish: "The Who's Tommy"

July 9th 2011
By: toto_too514
Edited by: Marcy

After much anticipation Tommy opened tonight at The Colonial Theatre… they ROCKED the house down!!! I was actually able attend both the matinee and the evening performance and had front row center seats for both shows – a definite plus, although this show was so big and so loud and so perfectly rock ‘n roll that even the people in the sold out evening were dancing in the back balcony!

For those of you familiar with the 1993 Broadway version will find the story closely follows that production. I have never seen the movie version, so I can’t compare there, but if you only know the original Who album, you will definitely notice some differences… a few of the most glaring ones include the removal of the religious references… Tommy is not referred to as the “new messiah” and his followers are not “disciples.” Also, Sally Simpson has a more integral part in the ending, which changes some of the lyrics to both her song and the following… but it works.

Another very important part is the excellent rock band they have playing the music loud and perfect! My only complaint is that sometimes they are so loud they drown out the voices on the stage. That also occasionally happened when the full chorus sings. They are powerful, and sometimes it’s hard to hear the soloist.

The theater also did an excellent job with the staging and set. This is an ambitious musical for a regional theater to undertake. There are a lot of people and props and costume changes including a large projections screen that displays WWII airplanes and parachutes, maps, pictures of the cast etc…

In the first act we mainly see Randy as a narrator for the story; he also “talks” to his younger selves. He first appears in the balcony talking to 4 year old Tommy, and then he runs down the aisle of the theater to the stage… he looks amazing! He is dressed from head to in white… knit sweater, chinos, shoes and socks. He follows his younger self as he watches the beginning of his affliction, witnessing in a mirror as his father kill a man and being instructed not to tell what he saw or heard. As the narrator, he invites everyone to come along for an Amazing Journey.

His rendition of See Me, Feel Me is hauntingly beautiful. Melodic, sweet and sad all at the same time. He follows young Tommy on stage, observing what his happening, at one point leaning up against the side of the stage with ankles crossed.

As Tommy gets older, he watches him become the Pinball Wizard and from the platform and steps at the rear of the stage he instructs 10 year old Tommy on how to play… as he does so, he gets into dancing and moving and shaking his hips as he sings Sensation… he was having extra fun at the evening performance with big smiles. At one point he has one foot on the back of the Pinball machine as he sings and dances.

Act one closes with 19 year old Tommy as the Pinball Wizard… so Randy now switches places with his younger selves, they now speak to him and he is “the deaf dumb and blind kid.”

In Act Two, one of my favorite scenes involves Tommy’s mother singing a wistful reprise of It’s a Boy as Tommy sits unaware of anything. . They then take Tommy to yet another doctor where he is tested… this scene has changed several times, starting with Tommy strapped to a gurney with a helmet covered in lights and gadgets as Randy twitches and grimaces.

After a great scene where the cousin and his friends carry Tommy home after they have they basically tossed him around like a rag doll, leaving him on the floor with ruffle of the hair, Tommy’s parents begin to think it might be best to leave Tommy’s care to an institution… Randy is great, very subtly moving a finger or a lip or a nod of a head. Mrs. Walker becomes very frustrated with Tommy’s fascination with the mirror. (This is how he communicates with the little Tommys) The scene is powerful with Tommy struggling to get back to the mirror as Mrs. Walker pushes, throws grabs Tommy, anything to get him from going back to the mirror including using a chair which she eventually uses to break the mirror. The stage goes dark; the projection screen shows broken as we hear the sound of shattered glass.

When the lights come up we see Tommy looking in the broken mirror and coming back to life… he throws his sunglasses and relishes his new found recovery singing a very enthusiastic I’m Free. He chases Uncle Ernie away with a chair, and is not ready to hug his father, but he does embrace his mother.

When Tommy comes on stage again he is rolled in on top of a Pinball Machine, dressed in a glittering silver waist jacket open in the front and fringe with matching hip-hugger pants, wearing large green sunglasses, reading newspaper articles about himself and smoking a cigarette. After a small monologue in a very believable cockney accent – which is the first time we actually hear Tommy SPEAK. At the night’s performance, Randy really got into this part, perhaps going just a bit over the top, before launching into a reprise of I’m Free. He also dons a helmet type thing with a silver veil – to simulate being blind, deaf and dumb - as he plays the pinball machine, which I didn’t think I was going to like, but it actually works here.

He appears in yet another costume of sliver and white, this one a button down shirt and bell-bottom, as he gives his “show” from the top of the back platform complete with swinging the microphone. As Sally Simpson, falls he stops the show and goes to her and sings softly What You’ll Be as he comforts her. He decides he’s had enough and wants to go home – the second time he talks – and invites everyone to come with him. Randy is very animated as he sings and points to people and waves them in to his house as he sings Welcome. At this point many extras file down the aisle and fill the stage.

Ad he sits on the couch with sally and welcomes them in, he removes his silver boots to reveal bright red socks! But the people still want a hero… Tommy tells them he shouldn’t want to be like him, he is just happy to be normal… and this is where the songs veer off drastically from the Who original album. He sings a different version We’re Not Gonna Take It with the unhappy crowd that abandons him. He sings a reprise of See Me Feel Me with the two younger Tommys in the balcony and makes peace with all members of his family culminating in a rousing finale of Listening To You which tonight include a very happy smiling, grinning Randy jumping up and down as he sang and encouraging the audience to clap along. And in a scene reminiscent of Hair, many of the extras, dressed n the style of the 1960’s hippies danced in the aisles. The show ended with a small tribute to The Who, who appeared on the projection screen as the actors bowed to them.

The entire cast got arousing standing ovation… with a little something extra for Uncle Ernie, The Acid Queen and Tommy! Randy looked absolutely overjoyed… that’s only way to describe it. The place was electric tonight!!!!

There was a very nice party after the show and several of the actors commented on how enthusiastic the crowd was tonight, and that they felt the energy on stage and it helped them with the performance! Randy had several fans waiting for him, and he signed autographs, posed for pictures (One great shot of the Randy with his two young costars who were both adorable!) and chatted for a good long while. He had a surprise congratulation from the actor who played Pozzo in Godot – and whose name I can’t remember now. He was very happy to see him! Also present was Brian Belukha who provided the DJ-ing services… sticking to the rock classics for the evening.

A truly amazing night… I have heard Randy sing several times at Joe’s and saw him in POP!, of course… but this was completely beyond any of that. I didn’t think Randy could surprise me any longer with the depth of his talent, but as he has done so often in the past, he astonished me with his singing tonight. Strong, powerful when needed gentle and melodic when not…

WOW…. Just, WOW!