Ricardo Montalban Theatre (Los Angeles, CA)
Flicker House Productions presents The Who's Tommy, the pioneering rock opera which tells the story of a deaf, dumb, and blind boy who becomes a pinball champion and cult guru. This new production marks the theatrical premiere of EXP3D's 3-D Sound. Bose headphones are provided at every seat. Stars include original Broadway cast member Alice Ripley.
Event summary prepared by the Goldstar Editorial Team.
* Additional fees apply.
There was very little new with the performances in this "re-awakening" of The Who's Tommy, however rather than the standard method of watching a performance on stage, this time we used headphones to make it almost like watching a CD... in a way. Other than not being able to mess with the volume settings, the phones were a cool gimmick. They were Bose, so the quality was wonderful (except for the last song in the first act, which had a very distracting echo) and it meant that no ones foot scuffling or coughing would distract from the show. It's a rock opera, so it fit well enough. Although I feel the gimmick would be best suited in a show such as We Will Rock You, they were an enjoyable asset here as well, let's just hope this doesn't become a standard. There's something to hearing the real notes the orchestra plays that adds energy to a show.
Alexs Pevec was phenomenal, a bright light in a normally dull, rather plain (and often down right bad) assortment of stage actors - by which I mean in LA and not Tommy - and I'm looking forward to many more years of his name headlining marquis.
I was unimpressed with Hendrix and Drayton's Gypsy/Acid Queen and Hawker, which felt uninspired, slow and detached from the rest.
PJ Griffith's Cousin Kevin was laughable at best. He felt better by act 2, but his poor attempt to come across as some bastardized mix of Mick Jagger and Malcolm McDowell's A Clockwork Orange character, Alex, was forced and often hard to watch. Although the energy was commendable, his talent just isn't there.
Alice Ripley and Tom Schmid, as Tommy's parents, were fine. They paled next to the light of their son, but in some ways that added to the overall experience. Tom started weak as the soldier, but when the role brought him closer to his real age, he found his stride.
The fight scenes were dull and emotionless, but Denise Leitner's dance choreography was outstanding - exciting and alive, bringing the ensemble together almost as one entity, breathing as one united unit.
As always, I wished that Tommy's mother was given more direction as to who she really is. Did she actually love her husbands replacement? Was she upset at his death? Or was he just a replacement and little more?
Over all, the show is worth seeing. It's not likely to pull your emotions as Brian Purcell's direction feels as though he cared more for the sound of the music than telling of the story,
but it really is great music, after all.
Fantastic! Go and see this production!
I enjoyed the performances of the character actors more than the leads. "Uncle Ernie" "Cousin Kevin" "the Hawker" & "Sally Simpson" were all very good.
That was just me. The girls next to me were really into "Tommy", squealing with delight & giving him a standing ovation at curtain.
From where I was seated in the 2nd row, I could also see the orchestra conductor in the pit very clearly. He was singing all the words and jumping around. Absolutely getting into it.
The Ricardo Montalban Theatre is a landmark theater built in 1926 by Cecil B. De Mille and and famous Los Angeles architect Myron Young. An intimate venue with 1,200 seats, the theater is located in the heart of Hollywood, just south of Hollywood and Vine. It was previously known as the Doolittle Theatre and, before that, the Huntington Hartford. A recent partnership with Nike has brought a Nik
Website: http://www.thewhostommy.com/
Flicker House Productions presents a new production of The Who's Tommy at the Ricardo Montalbán Theatre in Hollywood. The Who's Tommy features music and lyrics by Pete Townshend and book by Pete Townshend and Des McAnuff. The cast will include original Broadway cast member Alice Ripley.
The production is directed by Brian Purcell, who directed "Chess," the special event at the Ford Amphitheatre last summer. With musical director Dan Redfeld and choreographer Denise Leitner, Purcell has come up with a radical new theatrical treatment for Tommy, one of the seminal works of the rock era. The concept is to create a new and visceral aural environment, designed especially for the Ricardo Montalbán theatre.
As the movie was to the seventies, and the Broadway staging was to the nineties, Purcell and his collaborators have a new concept for the piece for this decade. Purcell said, "We envision a 'Tommy' that takes place inside of Tommy's own head and to track his experience of his story. This gives us an entirely new canvas to present this work, which has meant so much to the three generations that have come up since the album's original release."
The production will introduce high definition 3-D Sound, presented by EXP3D, a new audio system that does for sound what 3-D and its lenses does for motion pictures. The sound will inhabit a fully dimensional space, inside and outside each guest's body.
Each guest will have Bose headphones to wear, the equivalent of movie 3-D glasses for this production. Unlike conventional headphone experience, where the soundscape is a straight line between the wearer's ears, EXP3D sound gives the listener a fully dimensional room of sound with height, width, and depth.
Tommy director Brian Purcell said, "EXP3D is the best sound you'll ever see. It allows us to do Tommy in an entirely new way - and for the first time the audience will truly be inside Tommy's head as he experiences the events of the play.
The sound is designed by James Johnson, who created the EXP3D sound delivery system for this production. Johnson will take the live sound, mix it for the 3-D soundscape, and then deliver it to each audience member through the headphones, which work in conjunction with sound delivered through speakers.
Purcell said, "While most of the sound will be heard in the headphones, we will also employ theatrical sound you really can feel, just like in state-of-the-art movie theatres, that can only be delivered through conventional speakers. The speakers will also carry all of the sound of the show, so that audience members who are headphone adverse have a complete experience." Headphone distribution is provided by MagicFire Inc.
The Who's Tommy is one of the most phenomenal works of the rock era. Originally released as a two-record set in 1969, and composed by Pete Townshend, with songs contributed by Who bassist John Entwistle and drummer Keith Moon, it was the work that started a new genre - the rock opera. Since its first release, it has been continuously performed live, including the tremendously successful Broadway staging in 1993.
Tommy was inspired by and written to convey the experience of how Townsend felt after being taught by Meher Baba, a Persian man born in India who became a spiritual master and teacher and anti-drug advocate, and other writings and expressing the enlightenment he believes he received. It is a metaphorical story of different states of consciousness. Purcell said "I want to return the work to this base - and to strip down this work and return it back to the sensibility and the message of the original album from 1969 - raising awareness of the spirit."
Other cast members include Aleks Pevec as Tommy; Jenna Leigh Green, most recently Nessarose in the Los Angeles production of "Wicked"; Tom Schmid as Captain Walker; and Hank Adams as Uncle Ernie.
Brian Purcell directed "Chess," the special event at the Ford Amphitheatre last summer; it was among the most popular and highest grossing attractions in the Ford's history. As an actor, he appeared in the Broadway National Tour of "Jesus Christ Superstar," and in "Footloose" as Willard Hewitt, "Ragtime" as Younger Brother and "Evita" as Che.