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Re: Tommy for Dummies

Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 21:28:10 -0400
From: "Brian Wright" <lump_16@hotmail.com>

I'm going to see a showing of Tommy next Sunday with a friend of mine.

All she knows about Tommy is that's he's a deaf dumb and blind kid who can
play a mean pinball.

I've never seen the play before so if I play the CD on the way down before
the show will that be enough for my friend to get the gist of whats goin on
in the play?

Or do I need to find a Tommy for Dummies website between now and then?
It sounds like you might not know that the play differs from the album. It was significantly reworked to make it a more coherent, flowing story. For more info, you might like a review I wrote in 1994 of the touring version of the show at
http://www.thewho.net/hyper/TOMMYreview.html

If you had more time to work with her I'd suggest playing the album straight through for her, as many times as necessary until she thinks she has a good grasp of what it's about, followed by the live version from the Leeds reissue, then the play, as the play is really a separate and different incarnation than the original. By an amazing coincidence, that mirrors how I experienced Tommy over the years. :-)

However, it sounds like you have NO time to work with her if you're considering playing the album on the drive to the show. For an absolute newbie, I think the album would only raise more questions than it answers on a first-time listen, and walking straight into the play after that would only cause confusion due to the different episodes (e.g., the Pinball Wizard reprise, the interview-with-the-media scene, and the familial reconciliation at the end) that don't appear at all in the album. After the play, you have plenty of time to go back and fill in history. If you want music for the drive down, consider the Broadway cast CD. Finding that between now and Sunday should give you something to do ;-).

FWIW,
--
Alan
"That's unbelievable, if that's true"
-- Howard Stern, 5/25/00