Tommy Theatrical Production(s)

["William (Bill) Cody" <William_Cody@bc.sympatico.ca>]

Best Holiday Wishes to All:

Several weeks ago, I submitted a "farcical satorial review" of two of
This List's contributors' ongoing squabble. (Un)fortunately my
submission appeared only on the "other" list, and was lost in This
digest's Lost Digest #(I can't remember...~1070...). I will not re-post
that submission here 'cuz it seems to be a dormant issue.

My point was: entertainment for entertainment's sake. This that joins us
together is a hobby. Some lurkers perhaps should be well-read and not
e-heard!

I really enjoy everything I see and read on these lists, and save most
for some of the info contained therein. My particular interests however
do not lie in the microscopic details admired by many. In the same
breath, I envy those of you Who are able to treat this hobby with such
zeal.

There are two items of recent discussion that I would like to comment
upon/question:

1. Pete's hearing. Am I mistaken or was it not Keith's double-charged
explosion on the Smothers Brothers show that actually punctured Pete's
eardrum(s)? Such permanent irreparable damage would at best produce
scarred tissue which in turn would permanently disable anyone's hearing.

2. Tommy (Broadway & Other Versions). There have been but a couple of
submissions over the last two weeks (Fiona P; Gary L; Lester P) and
really only a few over the year that I've been monitoring (not lurking)
this List. The various stage productions of Tommy have been brilliant in
their own right. I've already mentionned that I've seen several versions
of this production over the years. My one regret is having missed the
original Broadway cast. However, I still believe the Toronto production
to have been The Penultimate Production. Tylee Ross beat Michael
Cerveris (sp?) "Hands Down", at least from my repeated listenings to the
Show CD.
What I wanted to say in THIS posting though is to reflect what Gary L
said in his disappointment of the show's cancellation: "...I was looking
forward to catching it on my birthday..."  When I first got tickets to
the Toronto cast version of late 1995, I had been PLANNING to see both
the NY and T.O. shows for over a year. It was only when I heard the T.O.
show was being closed that I actually called the Dreaded T/Master and
got tickets to several of the pre-closing "Tommy" shows at the Winter
Gardens Theatre in downtown Toronto. Last year whilst in England, I made
a point of going to the Shaftesbury to see the London production - a
major disappointment. On my return to Canada, several "travelling road
shows" of the Tommy production were in the works, most of which I got to
see. One of these was an American version with NONE of the original
stage lighting or effects. It did not compare except for a very few
special scenes, which made it memorable in its own right.

How many reading this list have seen any of the productions? Does anyone
share my view that the London venue was highly inadequate for the show,
leading in a big way to its short run in one of the greatest theatre
districts in the western world? Who has seen the various "abbreviated"
versions, either in the US or in the UK?

With all the chatter on these lists about The Who, I've been a little
disappointed about the lack of discussion on this particular topic. If,
as Fiona P suggests, Pete might be incredibly sad about the lack of
endurance of Des MacAnuff's and his co-production, have we, the true and
deep Who fans not contributed to the demise of this brilliant stage show
by our lack of recognition of the Show in this forum?

I still prefer to submit my personal feelings of the effects that Pete
and the boys have had on me, rather than trying to get involved in
discussing details of pressings and the like, with no disprect to those
Who do. As such, those feelings can be neither wrong nor right: they are
but my feelings.


"The guitar...is a weapon"
PT

Bill in Vancouver