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Tommy." Spotlight on Theater Notes

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Tommy. DOCUMENT RESUME ED 381 837 CS 508 904 AUTHOR Carr, John C. TITLE The Who's "Tommy." Spotlight on Theater Notes. INSTITUTION John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. SPONS AGENCY Department of Education, Washington, DC. PUB DATE [95] NOTE 9p.; Produced by the Performance Plus Program, Kennedy Center Education Department. Funding also provided by the Kennedy Center Corporate Fund. For other guides in this series, see CS 508 902-906. PUB TYPE Guides General (050) EDRS PRICE MFO1 /PCO1 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Acting; *Cultural Enrichment; *Drama; Higher Education; Interviews; *Playwriting; Popular Culture; *Rock Music; Secondary Education IDENTIFIERS Historical Background; Musicals; *Tommy (Rock Opera) ABSTRACT This booklet presents a variety of materials concerning The Who's rock opera "Tommy." The booklet discusses the plot, the character of Tommy, highlights of "Tommy"'s 25-year history, the evolution of "Tommy," biographical information on the producer, director, actors and designers, awards won by the rock opera, "Tommy"'s statement about power, and "Tommy" as high-tech theater. (RS) Reproduct3ons supplied by MRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *;:*-4%***';')YA-**I'Cii).:***)'.',%)%**).:*********1:*****)%**)%***A).:********1%i-A*),I'A****).(**;C:,' y po Ii. ohea e es I , fa s, e; , 64 - uce #1_,.,,tePerfo arid- .a.40RIOs roarand eCenter Eaucahon pe aend A,. U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION ° Points of view or opinions stated In this CENTER (ERIC) document do not necessarily represent This document has been reproduced as official OERI position or policy received from the person or organization onginoting it 4 El Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality 0 PY AVAILABLE Tommy: The Story Tommy is a story of alienation, the conse- He uses his fame to express his long- quences of celebrity, and finally, the healing repressed rage but begins to resolve it when a powers of reconciliation. fan is hurt because of him. In the current treatment of The Who's 25- His great turning point occurs when he year -old rock opera, the story is told with a refuses to give his disciples easy spiritual minimum of dialogue. We follow the story's answers and they in turn abandon him. On the characters and events through songs, dance, verge of returning to his former withdrawn and the new wizardry of stage technology. state, he recognizes the need to risk emotional The title character is the musical's central engagement with his family and returns to figure. When Tommy is four, his father returns them in an act of reconciliation. from a World War II prisoner-of-war camp, dis- covers his wife with her lover, and kills him. Tommy witnesses the murder; the trauma of the experience causes him to become deaf, Defining Tommy: speechless, and blind. Later, he is sexually The Character assaulted by an uncle, an event that compli- cates his withdrawal from the world. The character of Tommy is very much a tabula Years later Tommy discovers pinball and rasa, or blank slate, on which audiences can becomes a n.:ighborhood champion, the write their own interpretations. "Pinball Wizard," yet his illness remains a mys- During much of the show's action, he is, as a tery no doctor can cure. At 20, on his own, he song lyric describes him, a "deaf, dumb, and suddenly emerges from his trauma. The news blind kid." He reveals little and littleis of the miracle cure spreads like wild fire but, revealed about him. Throughout the show his ironically, his elevation to celebrity and the essential personality is ambiguous. He is both adulation of his fans alienates him further. a boy and man of mystery. Unwillingly he assumes a messiah-like position. Tommy is who and what you want him to be. r. a, Is #....''' 4'' ' 0 ''...*4 ..,--- . i Sf' rt c- A, 1, 4 ,....1" q ,m, , , .4htk 1If ,, 4,,' 1 41 ..0., I I/. 44114 ,",. 4 li', I' 1,45144*. -44 al M.' ., --- -, -'., ,...5 b,, 4 1 , 'L '----m..........., ,.. 3 characteristic of a Who concert was its What's In Tommy's ending, in which the performers Name? destroyed their instruments, an activitytechnically knownas Pete Townshend is straightforward about autodestruction. Coming as the the fact that the name Tommy was cho- climax of an already rebellious sen for its resonance. performance, the violence became Tommy is a common British name, but it the group's resounding message of is also the name by which privates in the anarchy. British Army are called, just as American G.I.s Before The Who there was the are called Joe. Detours, a group composed of Townshend also invites us to hear in the Pete Townshend (lyricist and gui- name "to me," which he says is the direction of tarist),RogerDaltrey(lead the musical's action: toward Tommy. singer),and JohnEntwistle Townshend, a devotee of guru Meher Baba, (bassist). Seeking another image, attaches significance to the letters "o-m" in the group added a drummer (Keith Tommy, seeing and hearing them as "om," the Moon) and changed its name to The Who. standard sound used as a mantra in Eastern Moon died in 1978 and was replaced by meditation. When, Tommy was written in the Kenney Jones. The Who disbanded in 1982. late 1960s, "om" was well known, particularly among those in the counterculture. The sound is employed as a symbol of spiritual centered- ness and peace. Tommy's last name is Walker, which well suits a character in search of him- Is there special meaning self. to the fact that Tommy While their names are different, Tommy and becomesthe"Pinball Pete Townshend share some similarities. izard"? From an existen- Townshend says that recently he has begun to tialviewpoint,thepinball see autobiographical elements in the musical. game mtht be seen as a metaphor for life. A In addition to his observation that he always ball is let loose on a hazardous course, bounces wrote in the voice of "a guy who was 15 or 16 from "bumper" to "bumper," and ultimately in (London's) Shepherd's Bush in 1964," rolls out of the game and is replaced by anoth- Townshend also acknowledges that he was er ball. The same view raises two questions: influenced in his writing by an upsetting child- "What's the point: a high score?" and "So hood experience with one of his father's what?" Those questions seem to align them- friends. Certainly the rebellious tone of his selves with those that Tommy music and the destruction of instruments that himself confronts. was integral to live performances with The Is pinball a metaphor Who also speaks of emotional turbulence seek- forrockandroll? ing release. Perhaps. After ail, Tommy and his disciples use the game as a myste- Who? rious way to communicate withoneanother. In case you've been out of town since the Hasn't popular music of the last 40 mid-'60s, the rock music group The years been used that way by young Who was formed in 1965 and promptly people eager to share mes- set about creating one of the major leg- rE..,:7.4y-",:\ sages that older people may ends of popular music. A distinguishing find threatening or incom- prehensible? r; ZIP;11, t 1) 'rind() '1rrx11MT )T:4; :Aears, e*fi rommy:TSom g,0111 h 190x': 69oii341.1 1,1\4 , 199 The Who provide The recording of Tommy A dance version of Ken Russell's film The Who's Tommy The new T'mmy a press premiere becomes a hit. Tommy by Les Grands treatment of Tommy opens on Broadway, plays the of the music In Ballets Canadians plays appears. winning five Tony Opera House. London The Who perform Tommy the Kennedy Center's Awards. at the Metropolit-:..,i Opera. Opera House. Thi Who perform Tommy at Woodstock 4 than 30 cities, including Chicago, Boston, San Tommy: The Evolution Francisco, Los Angeles, Dallas, Houston, Tommy is one of the cultural phenomena of the Atlanta, and Philadelphia. last generation. It began life as a record album Following Washington, the company will and has evolved through various forms to the play an engagement in Nashville. full-fledged staged musical that will fill the Opera House for five weeks. "Rock opera" was new terminology in 1969 when The Who recorded Tommy. By the fol- Tommy's "Father": lowing year, the popularity of the album made Pete Townshend Tommy's composer, lyricist, and co-author Pete Townshend is frequently faced with the ques- tion: why another version of a work he created 25 years ago? Speaking towriter Michael Goldstein, Townshend confessed, "The most pressing rea- A.. son is my personal drive to move into musical theater. I've waited a long time, sitting on vari- ous rights like a mother hen, for some sign that St the public is ready to fill theaters to see my shows rather than sheds to see The Who."* Beyond that Townshend explains that Tommy still had some distance to go to be fully satisfy- ing. He says that this version is the "definitive" one. Another reason Townshend accepted the challenge to re-work Tommy is the show's rhythm. "There is a real desire," he says, "even among theatergoers delighting in shows like Phantom, Cats, and Les Miz, to be exposed to musicals based on the basic percussion rhythms of this age. We drive to drums, make love to drums, and cook and eat to drums. They are simply everywhere. Everywhere it clear that audiences wanted live concert pre- except great music theater." sentations of the piece.
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