Civic Presents An Epic 'Tommy'
The score is one of the crowning achievements in all of rock music.The stage version has a huge cast, hundreds of costumes and eye-popping special effects. And it's all coming to the stage at Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre.
Civic presents an epic 'Tommy'
BY CHRISTOPHER POTTER
News Arts Writer
Does it matter in the slightest that The Who’s rock opera “Tommy” was first released on LP 32 years ago? To hear Glenn Bugala describe the seismic response to Ann Arbor Civic Theatre’s imminent reprise of Broadway’s 1993 stage production, it seems this 1969 musical epic hasn’t aged a minute.
“One of the most striking things about our show,” says Bugala, “is the number of male dancers (whose usual absence is a traditional curse of community theater) we’ve got. Not just run-of-the-mill but top-flight dancers. It’s just awesome, and surprising. Where did they all come from?”
Even more surprising was the response triggered by the announcement of tryouts for “Tommy” on AACT’s Web site, a response that still has Bugala shaking his head. “I had people e-mailing me from New York, California, even England, all of them asking ‘Is there any way I can audition for “’Tommy?” I just LOVE this show!’
The plain fact is that Ann Arbor Civic’s Thursday-through-Sunday production at Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre will likely lure theatergoers and rock fans. Perhaps that’s because unlike often smarmy or otherwise compromised rock musicals, “Tommy” is a show that never cops out. A legitimate opera spun from the genius brain of composer/lyricist/guitarist Peter Townshend (who’s now 56 years old), “Tommy” is a tough, unsentimental and often harrowingly brutal musical drama recalling the deprivations of post-war England as epitomized by hero/victim-turned-messiah Tommy (played by three actors of varying ages).
For those not in the know, luckless Tommy is struck psychologically deaf, dumb and blind after witnessing his brutal father - returned from a German prisoner-of-war camp -shoot his mother’s lover dead. Traumatized (and physically abused) into his own dark and silent world, Tommy - who grows from 4 to 10 and finally to young adulthood during the show - ultimately finds solace and communication through his inexplicable wizardry at pinball. Given his sensory liabilities, he’s soon hyped into a media celebrity-freak, much to the greedy delight of his avaricious mom and dad.
Tommy eventually succeeds in casting off his emotionally imposed handicaps. Yet he finds himself just as isolated, in the role of messianic hero to the youth of Britain and the world. The unnaturalness of the situation reaches a bursting point: Even as his zillions of idolaters turn against him and run riot, Tommy faces a hard but profound truth: Only through himself - not through his treacherous parents or his fickle fans - can he uncover his own value and purpose in life.
“That’s my take on the show’s message,” says Bugala, “about finding your identity and your place in the world. It’s also a show about teen-agers, it’s a very bitter show about British history, about Britain going from a country which at one point in the 20th century possessed one-third of the world, and in 20 years went to being just England and nothing else.
“And it is about a messiah. A messiah who has to suffer greatly hefore he finds his place, finds out what he’s called to do. It’s about a journey. Tommy’s been inside his own mind for 14 years, but that’s only the beginning for him.”
Bugala - who’s wanted to direct “Tommy” ever since he saw the Broadway version - makes no secret of his desire to mount Civic’s “Tommy” as a genuine epic. “We’re talking about bringing an icon of the ‘60s, a remnant from the Age of Protest, to the stage of 2002, and all the challenges that go along with it. We’ve got a cast of 34, we’ll have two screens with projections that members of the art department at Eastern Michigan University created for us. We have stage platforms with chain-link fence on them, platforms that move around, create the urban landscape of the show. We’ll have four pinball machines on various platforms. And since the opera’s rock-based, our band is going to be on a rear platform, center-stage visually and visible throughout the show.”
Save for the three Tommys (Maggie McCoy at age 4, Kellen McCoy at age 10, and Dann Smallwood as teen-age Tommy) and his parents (Curt Waugh and Carrie Wickert), each cast member will play an average of nine different characters. “Dann told me after auditions he’d been preparing for eight months, which isn’t outlandish. It is epic opera, just huge.
“We have 200 costumes, 300 light cues, 90 entrances in the first four-and-a-half minutes, during the overture. We do the blitz of London on stage, with lots of flashing lights, the sound of planes dive-bombing and explosions going off. We’ve got 150 props, endless costume changes, and the cast itself will be moving the set. It’ll be an enormous undertaking.”
Bugala’s wife, Emily, will handle the choreography, while music director Pamela Vachon will handle the choral cues. The show’s rock instrumentalists, led by Eric Walton, include three keyboardists, two guitarists, bassist and drummer, “which seems appropriate for a rock-concert show,” says the director.
Bugala - who says he loathes Ken Russell’s 1974 film version of “Tommy” - says the original opera’s “been in my head for years. I thought about every scene and its essence, how to express it. I prefer shows that leave you saying ‘WOW!’ A show that leaves you talking and thinking. And I’m still thinking about it. This is not a show for kids.”
Curt Waugh, Maggie McCoy and Carrie Wickert star in "Tommy," opening tonight.
COVER STORY
"Tommy"
Who: Ann Arbor Civic Theatre.
What: The Who's rock opera. When: 8 p.m.tonight-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday.
Where: Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre, 911 N. University Ave.
How much: Tickets are $19 general, $17 students/seniors. Tonight's tickets are $10.Tickets may be purchased at the Michigan Union Ticket Office, 435 S. State St., or by calling (734) 763-TKTS.