A bunch of us went to see The Who’s Tommy musical on Broadway last night. I loved it. There were a few slow moving parts, but the music and the flashing lights and loud production was the thing.
Two small kids played Tommy at ages 4 and 10 and what was remarkable was that they didn’t have much or any dialog but their presence and silence and they way they were swung around and turned upside down and just thrown around as if they were dolls was amazing. When the stage was full of other singers, dancers and actors, you couldn’t keep your eyes off the young kids.
Of course, I knew most, if not all of the Who’s music and that made it great.
The story of course is of a boy who witnesses a murder, in his own house, at age 4, and that causes him to turn into himself and he becomes deaf, dumb and blind, as the song goes. It’s a great, loud production.
I heard various reviews from the people I was with and it seems as if I am the one who was the most enthusiastic. But at the end of the musical, the whole audience was up on their feet cheering and singing and leaving the theater smiling. A day later I can still hear the music in my head.
The musical is at the Nederlander Theater on 41st Street in Manhattan.
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