The Who's Tommy

The Who’s Tommy is a rock musical with music and lyrics by Pete Townsend and book by Townsend and Des McDuff, and is based on The Who’s 1969 rock opera Tommy. When a young Tommy witnesses the murder of his father by his mother’s lover he is repeatedly told by them that he didn’t see or hear anything. He reacts by withdrawing into a non-responsive state of existence, blankly staring into a mirror, where he ‘sees’ his father. As he grows he suffers abuse at the hands of his sadistic relatives and neighbours and whilst many differing attempts are made to break Tommy free from his mental anguish, they are all without success. As an adolescent he finally connects to something - a pinball machine and when his mother eventually smashes the ‘mirror’ he becomes fully lucid and responsive and goes on to become an international pinball superstar. 

The young man playing Tommy, Harrison Ince, was excellent. He was totally focused throughout and captured the characters sense of detached isolation quite remarkably for one so young. I liked his simple movements when playing the pinball machine and his singing was great. The multi talented Chris Collington not only directed and choreographed the show, he co-designed the set and onstage projections but also, played Mr. Walker, Tommy’s father, and acted as the narrator. As Mr. Walker he was truly brilliant. He commanded the stage giving a superb convincing portrayal and what a fabulous singing voice he has. Kirsty Vastenavondt was fine as Nora, Tommy’s mother. She gave a lovely rendition of ‘It’s a Boy’ and had been quite reserved and distressed up until the point when she ‘lost it’, smashed and fervently sang ‘Smash the Mirror’. As The Lover, Daniel Collington was first-rate, very much the man that you really didn’t want to like. His singing too, was just amazing. Simon Owen was suitably repellent as Uncle Ernie and his version of ‘Fiddle About’ certainly made your flesh creep. The other nasty piece of work, Cousin Kevin, was well played by Simon Collington who too, has an incredible singing voice. The ensemble cast in their many differing roles were all superb and gave tremendous support to the main characters and to the show as a whole. There were some excellent small cameo roles but I must just mention the lady who terrifically sang ‘Acid Queen’. I loved the stylised movement and dancing that accompanied the big ensemble numbers and the ‘signing’ of ‘See Me, Feel Me’ by all the cast, was extremely well delivered. A simple set, various scenes being depicted by the clever manipulation of metal building barriers, adequate props, a super larger than life Judge, stunning lighting, extremely well balanced sound and splendid costumes all added to the whole ambience of the show. 

Musical Director, James Bowden, along with seven other band members produced a tremendous sound that certainly did justice to the iconic music of The Who and I might add that they had no respite, as they never stopped playing!

This was a massive undertaking for the group to consider performing but they most definitely achieved and delivered an awe-inspiring, creative, energetic, thought provoking and somewhat quite disturbing show. Congratulations to the Production Team, to the magnificent, vocally outstanding and exuberant cast and to everyone else involved. I was totally enthralled from start to finish - even though I only knew one of the songs, ‘Pinball Wizard’! It was indeed, an ‘Amazing Journey’.

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