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Re: TOMMY Road show in Chicago





On Mon, 31 Oct 1994, Kyle Ewing wrote:

> <<<I talk about what to me are major changes in the plot below so If you 
> are planning on seeing the musical and want to see these for yourself, stop 
> reading now>>>
> 
> In my eyes the storyline on the live performace was changed significantly 
> from the album.  For example, I always thought it was Tommy's father who was 
> killed in the beginning and not his step father.  Not so in the play.
> 
> I've always thought the rebellion at the end was brought on because 
> Tommy's followers realized what he was teaching was B.S. and they didn't 
> need it, kind of a rebellion against what was the "in" thing.  In the 
> performance, it was Tommy who told his followers that his preaching meant 
> nothing and what they had (normal day to day lives) was what life was all 
> about.  Those two things will make me listen to the album again closely.

	There was a great book released last Christmas all about the 
broadway show in which PT explains all his changes in the script.  For 
example, (it's been a while since I looked at it but...) on the subject 
of Tommy's father, PT says that he always intended for the step-father 
to die because the step-father would have never felt the concern, later in 
the story, for Tommy that the father felt. The father-dying idea was 
Ken Russell's and his movie is the only place it happens.  I don't think 
you should base any interpretation of the plot on what 
you saw in the movie.  PT let Russell have quite a bit of creative 
license with the movie (the baked beans scene for example.  What the hell 
was that about anyway?)  
	Pete also said he changed the ending (remember the original was 
somewhat open-ended) because he said he knows the answer now, he knows 
how it ends.  He thought Tommy going back to his family, despite 
everything they did, is the answer; showing PT's new found family values.
	This book is pretty good.  It comes with a cd single of "I 
Believe My Own Eyes" (I managed to scratch mine all to hell)  from the 
show and it includes the complete script.  There isn't a ton of stuff  
about the Who but there are lots of big color pictures throughout -- the 
mark of good book for me. :)   It runs about 40 bucks if you can still  
find it.  

shanon
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Shanon Dell                     |       
Radio/Television Broadcasting   |  "Deaf, dumb, and blind boy, he's in a  
University of Montana           |   quiet vibration land..."               
tommy@selway.umt.edu            |                   -- The Who's "Tommy"     
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