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A Review of Last Night



Excerpts from the Boston Herald, 7/17/96 review.

		'QUADROPHENIA' SHOWS WHO STILL ROCKS

Madison Square Garden is literally about as close to Broadway as you
can get without actually being on it, and based on last night's superb
production of the Who's rock opera "Quadrophenia", it's only a matter
of time before the musical moves a few streets over to the Great White
Way.

After all, the Who's "Tommy" already has become a full-fledged
Broadway production.  The first of six nights of "Quadrophenia" at the
Garden - the show's only dates in America - revealed a work with
better structure and plot lines than "Tommy" and the music is close to
comparable.

Technically, this wasn't really a performance by the Who.  Who
vocalist Roger Daltrey was the dey man, but at times there were as
many as 20 people on stage, including five horns a four back-up
singers.

[Who played what, we already know all that.  There were video screen,
they started at 9pm, bla bla]

This was Roger Datlrey's night.  Clad in jeans and a white tank top,
he started the evening at center stage and really never relinquished
the spot.  He looked great, sounded fine and showed off the same
smoldering presence that made him a superstar with the Who.

Highlights ran the gamut from a rousing show opening "The Real Me" and
impassioned vocals from Townshend on "I'm the One" to a lusty "Doctor
Jimmy" and quietly effective "Drowned".

Near the end of the 90-minute musical, Daltrey broke into an
unabashed, mile-wide grin when the audience broke into rapturous
applause for no apparent reason.

Those veteran warriors - aging, but proud and unbowed - stood next to
each other, sharing a single mike and emananting warm mutual
affection.

It's been said several times before, but this could be the last time
for the Who.  If it is, there are far, far worse ways to have ended
it.

					-Review by Dean Johnson

- -- 
- - Brad Goldman
 (Brad@jimmy.harvard.edu)