Pete article from Broadway.Online

["Brian Cady" <cadyb@home.com>]

Available on line at:
http://www.broadwayonline.com/news/public/newsbrief.asp?newsid=10328&Are
aID=1

Pete Townshend Rocks La Jolla Playhouse, June 22 & 23
By Randy Gener

LA JOLLA, CA -- Singer and composer Pete Townshend is returning to La Jolla
Playhouse, the musical factory that produced in 1992 the first version of
The Who's Tommy, which went on to take Broadway by storm in 1993.

The Pinball Wizard performs at 8 PM on June 22 and 23 in a benefit for La
Jolla Playhouse, where his Tommy colleague Des McAnuff has taken over as
interim artistic director.

"Townshend is doing these rare benefit solo concerts of his own volition,
which is a testimony to his support for La Jolla Playhouse and his fondness
for the San Diego community," said McAnuff. "There's something poetic in the
fact that Townshend, who created [The Who's Tommy] at La Jolla Playhouse, is
making such a wonderful contribution to the creation of new plays and
musicals through this fundraiser."

Proceeds from the concerts benefit La Jolla's New Plays and Musicals
Project. Tickets go on sale to the general public at 12 Noon on Monday, May
14 at La Jolla Playhouse's box office (on the campus of UCSD, La Jolla
Village Drive at Torrey Pines Road) and by phone at (858) 550-1010.

There will be a priority purchase period for La Jolla Playhouse subscribers
and donors, before tickets go on sale to the general public. That period for
special donors runs from April 30 through May 11. For details, please call
the Playhouse box-office at (858) 550-1010.

Meanwhile, Townshend is still developing his stage adaptations of
Psychoderelict and Quadrophenia, both rock-opera albums.

Quadrophenia traces the life of Jimmy Cooper, a scooter-riding, seersucker
suit-loving teen in 1964 Brighton, England, who is drawn to, and alienated
from, the "Mod" world. He feels not just schizophrenic, but
"quadrophenic" -- his personality split in four. The album follows his
attempts to break into the Mod world, his discovery that it's not what he
expected, his disillusionment and his growth into his own man.

The story was filmed in 1979 with Phil Daniels and Sting.

Based on Townshend's own story, "Ray High and the Glass Household,"
Psychoderelict explores the triangle of a faded rock star, a needling
journalist and the rocker's pushy manager. A conceptual piece,
Psychoderelict broke new ground as a rock album by taking the form of a
radio play, with actors playing out their roles on a stage.

Two main projects have delayed these new stage versions of Psychoderelict
and Quadrophenia: Townshend's recent concert tour and Lifehouse, a
resurrection of a 1971 rock opera that began as a BBC Radio drama and was
broadcast Dec. 5, 1999. Then, in February 2000, he released the six-CD box
set, "The Lifehouse Chronicles," which contained all the music associated
with the project, as well as the radio play.

Townshend reportedly has been working on the Lifehouse project since just
after the completion of Tommy. Tommy was performed by The Who in concert for
years, and even filmed in 1975 with Roger Daltrey and Ann-Margret. But it
finally made its Broadway debut in 1993, winning Tony Awards for Best
Choreography (Wayne Cilento) and Best Score (in a tie with Kiss of the
Spider Woman). The Who's Tommy ran 900 Broadway performances.

        -Brian in Atlanta
         The Who This Month!
        http://members.home.net/cadyb/who.htm