Pete Townshend, who was in his early 20s when he wrote most of “Tommy,” is now 78 years old as the album-turned-Broadway musical plots a Chicago comeback. ChrisJonesTrib has more.
Thank you for supporting our journalism. This article is available exclusively for our subscribers, who help fund our work at the Chicago Tribune.Musician Pete Townshend at the Ritz-Carlton Oct. 11, 2022, in Chicago."Tommy," with Townshend as composer and based on his 1969 album for The Who, opens soon at the Goodman Theatre.“Tommy” was the fourth studio album released by the British band known as The Who and a colossal step forward when it came to rock music and narrative complexity.
Choreographer Lorin Latarro, director Des McAnuff and associate director Michael Bello at a rehearsal for the musical"Tommy" at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. “Tommy” was first turned into a Broadway musical in 1993. Its Chicago reboot will be followed by a national tour and a return to Broadway, still under the direction of McAnuff, who brought the show to Broadway in the first place.
A few months later in a Goodman Theatre rehearsal room, McAnuff observes something along the lines of, none of this would ever have happened without “Pinball Wizard. “I think Pete understood that he needed to ground the story in something recognizable,” says McAnuff, a rock musician himself. “Otherwise, it would have been too much in the clouds.”
First, though, Townshend had to be convinced. “I had been reluctant for a long time,” he says, “although musical theater was always something I valued. I always worried I would be betraying something about the system of rock. I worried I would be trying to get one form to do the job of another.”
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