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Always Gets a Replay: The Who’s Tommy
Yes, it’s a show from another time and culture. But the tension that disconnect brings is fascinating.
More neon frames iris in and out across the stage; whole line sets of flashing, spinning lighting instruments descend from the flies, blasting the action with what feel like disco balls that have been through a warp drive; and Sarafina Bush’s costumes feature egglike silver masks that render ensemble members menacingly faceless (and harder-better-faster-stronger) as they enter to whisk away furniture or manhandle the title character. This is the symbolic fulcrum on which Townshend’s opus turns: Once Tommy is discovered to be a preternatural genius at pinball, his body still isn’t his own, but it goes from being molested and abused — by the likes of his “wicked Uncle Ernie” (John Ambrosino) and thuggish cousin Kevin (Bobby Conte) — to becoming the object of reverence and mania. We’ve already felt a tinge of this awkwardness in Act One’s “Acid Queen”: While the number is gamely sung by Christina Sajous, it’s hard not to stifle a giggle while watching Jacobs’s stern-faced Captain Walker take his 10-year-old son to what appears to be a heroin den/brothel so a writhing junkie can “tear his soul apart” with her spider woman’s kiss.
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