‘THE WHO’S TOMMY’: Alison Luff, Olive Ross-Kline & Adam Jacobs. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

THE WHO’S TOMMY
Music & lyrics by Pete Townshend
Book by Pete Townshend & Des McAnuff
Choreography by Lorin Latarro
Directed by Des McAnuff
Nederlander Theatre
208 W 41st St
https://tommythemusical.com/

By Scott Harrah

Loosely based on the 1969 concept album, the 1993 Broadway adaptation of The Who’s Tommy by Pete Townshend and director Des McAnuff was a smash hit in New York, London and Toronto. This revival 31 years later arrives with great expectations and pedigree but leaves us with more questions than anything else.

Case in point: Why is the overture set in “The Future,” with cast members sporting dark masks as if in some demented 1980s music video? For those unfamiliar with the story, The Who’s Tommy is about a “deaf, dumb and blind kid” who experiences a series of traumas, but the family dysfunction starts long before the poor boy is even born. The story then opens in London in 1940 with the marriage of his parents, the Walkers. Next, we see Tommy’s future father Captain Walker (Adam Jacobs) parachuting into Nazi Germany where he is captured as a prisoner of war. Across the North Sea in England, the captain’s brother Ernie (John Ambrosino) delivers a package to pregnant Mrs. Walker (Alison Luff). Military officers arrive to announce that her husband has disappeared and has most likely been killed by the Germans.

In the following scene, nurses hand Mrs. Walker newborn son Tommy. Soon it’s 1945 and the Allies have freed Captain Walker and the other POWs. The war might be over, but the family fireworks are just beginning. Mrs. Walker is celebrating her 21^st birthday with her newfound boyfriend and four-year-old Tommy. When Captain Walker finally comes home to his estranged wife and sees what’s happening, Tommy witnesses a violent act that will traumatize him for many years.

This is a convoluted story indeed, but since Tommy is a musical based on the quintessential “rock opera,” one should be able to overlook the scattershot narrative and just enjoy the famous score, right? Unfortunately, this production is full of dark lighting, murky imagery and muffled sound, so hearing song lyrics in garbled tones is frustrating for audiences. Is it the microphones? Whatever the case, director Des McAnuff chose to showcase gimmicky projections, a “high tech” set and Lorin Latarro’s uninspired choreography more than the show’s famous songbook.

One of the most iconic scenes in Tommy features the Acid Queen who is supposed to be a funky prostitute who introduces Tommy to sex and drugs. In the film, she was played with spunk and sass by the late Tina Turner. Now, on Broadway, “Acid Queen”—as performed by Christina Sajous—is dull, listless, pointless and a throwaway number.

Don’t try too hard making much sense of the rest of the musical. He endures a lot of abuse along the way from his alcoholic pedophile Uncle Ernie and his sadistic, bullying Cousin Kevin (Bobby Conte). Kevin and friends take Tommy to a local amusement arcade in England where he develops an obsession with playing pinball machines. Tommy becomes a “Pinball Wizard” (as the famous 1970s rock song points out), with much encouragement and adulation from teenage spectators. After much fanfare in the British tabloids on Fleet Street and on the BBC, Tommy is hailed as a cult figure with a legion of devoted fans. Ali Louis Bourzgui plays Tommy on one note and lacks the charisma to make him believable.

The best performances here include Alison Luff as Mrs. Walker. Ms. Luff approaches the character with the right amount of vulnerability, and her vocals always shine. The two child actors portraying Tommy (Olive Ross-Kline as four-year-old Tommy and Reese Levine as 10-year-old Tommy) are also amazingly effective, displaying all the horror and trauma the young lad experiences.

This particular revival is so excessive and confusing that it will mostly satisfy the old die-hard Who and Tommy fans.

Edited by Scott Harrah
Published April 4, 2024
Reviewed at April 2, 2024 press performance

‘THE WHO’S TOMMY’: The cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘THE WHO’S TOMMY’: Adam Jacobs, Daniel Quadrino, Alison Luff, Olive Ross-Kline & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘THE WHO’S TOMMY’: Bobby Conte & cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘THE WHO’S TOMMY’: Christina Sajous. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘THE WHO’S TOMMY’: (Left to right) John Ambrosino, Bobby Conte, Ali Louis Bourzgui, Alison Luff & Adam Jacobs. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

‘THE WHO’S TOMMY’: Ali Louis Bourzgui. Photo: Matthew Murphy & Evan Zimmerman.

The post ‘The Who’s Tommy’: A dark disappointment appeared first on StageZine.

‘COMPANY’: Katrina Lenk. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

COMPANY
Music & lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Book by George Furth
Directed by Marianne Elliott
Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre
242 West 45th Street
(212-239-6200), https://companymusical.com/

By Scott Harrah

The latest Company revival could drive a critic (and purists) crazy with British director Marianne Elliott’s new, often confusing and very European spin on this masterpiece that has never needed tampering. Why?  It is the quintessential New York musical, a show renowned for its simplicity, sophistication and gorgeous score, featuring classics like “Being Alive,” “The Ladies Who Lunch,” “You Could Drive a Person Crazy,” “Another Hundred People,” “Getting Married Today” and others.  What’s offered here is a 21^st century perspective to dust off the narrative cobwebs and dated dialogue and make it relevant in 2021, but the score by Stephen Sondheim (who died last month) is so timeless that there was no need for a major overhaul here   More than 50 years have passed since Company first premiered on Broadway but much of the overall premise of the show rings true today.  Manhattan is still a maddening, overcrowded insane world with millions of people, and it’s still so easy to feel alone when you’re single.  This is certainly one of Mr. Sondheim’s greatest works, if not the best.  George Furth’s original book was—dare I say it?—ahead of its time back in 1970 when Company premiered on Broadway.  Many aspects of the show—tiny Manhattan apartments, expectations about getting married, the hustle and bustle of the New York City subway—are still relevant today.  Company is both an all-American musical and a paean to New York City, but Ms. Elliott’s interpretation (a hit in 2018 in London) has diminished many of the charms of the original show.

Director Marianne Elliott’s biggest change to the story is swapping the gender of lead character Bobby. Tony Award winner Katrina Lenk (The Band’s Visit) plays Bobbie, a single Manhattan woman celebrating her 35^th birthday.  Ms. Lenk has a great voice and an effervescent stage presence, but she appears too bland and emotionally distant for audiences to root for her, and this is problematic since the original Bobby was always the least interesting character in Company.

Marianne Elliott did such a superb job with the 2018 Broadway revival of Angels in America and the 2014 British import The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, so it is disappointing that she has added too much European-style excess here, from a scene showing Bobbie in the rain to various characters running through Bobbie’s bedroom during the “Barcelona” number in act two.  The last revival in 2006, starring Raul Julia as Bobby, was also very minimalist and featured gimmicky touches from another British director, John Doyle.  Remember how John Doyle had the actors play instruments onstage in the revival of Company and, in 2005, Sweeney Todd?  One of the changes that truly works is changing a straight couple to a gay couple. The character of Jamie (originally Amy) is played with manic exuberance by Matt Doyle as a gay man about to marry his partner Paul (Etai Benson).  Mr. Doyle truly stops the show with his outstanding rendition of “Getting Married Today.”  He displays all the nervous emotions of wedding-day jitters that both men and women, straight or gay, can relate to, and Mr. Doyle should certainly be a front-runner for a Tony Award in a few months.

Another standout is Tony nominee Jennifer Simard as Sarah, the diet-crazed woman married to recovering alcoholic Harry (Christopher Sieber).  Fans of Patti LuPone will not be disappointed with her take on the glamorous, acid-tongued Joanne, Bobbie’s oldest and dearest friend who loves to talk about her many husbands.  Ms. LuPone is her usual over-the-top self, belting out one of the show’s most famous songs, “The Ladies Who Lunch,” with her famous tough-diva pipes.

Scenic designer Bunny Christie mostly fills the stage with Neon-lit boxes and Mylar balloons in an attempt to make the show more contemporary, but doing so takes away some of the show’s New York accent.  Anyone who has at least studied the 1970 original remembers the set was actually a character in the show. Walter Kerr wrote in his 1970 New York Times review that the set by Boris Aronson “at first looks like the prison setting for ‘The Last Mile’ [but] becomes a breath-taking mobile, an interlocked Tinker-Toy of rippling platforms, sighing elevators, spun-glass spindles for dances to chin themselves on.”  In this revival, the set designs look nothing like New York City and could be Anywhere, USA.

Despite this revival’s many shortcomings, it is worth seeing Company simply for the score resurrected one more time to truly appreciate the late, great Mr. Sondheim and hear all the beautiful songs by the last of the great Broadway songsmiths.

Edited by David NouNou
Published December 12, 2021
Reviewed at December 11, 2021 press performance.

‘COMPANY’: (left to right) Christopher Sieber, Jennifer Simard, Katrina Lenk & Patti LuPone. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘COMPANY’: (left to right) Claybourne Elder, Manu Narayan, Bobby Conte. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘COMPANY’: Katrina Lenk & Claybourne Elder. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘COMPANY’: (left to right) Rashidra Scott, Katrina Lenk & Greg Hildreth. Photo: Brinkhoff-Moegenbur.

‘COMPANY’: Matt Doyle. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

‘COMPANY’: Katrina Lenk. Photo: Brinkhoff-Moegenburg.

‘COMPANY’: The cast. Photo: Matthew Murphy.

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