Since 1969, The Who’s Tommy has been striking resonant chords — first as a concept album by the legendary Rock group, then as a star-studded 1975 film and finally as a 1993 Broadway musical. That final incarnation, winner of five Tony Awards (including one for Pete Townshend’s original score and another for Wayne Cilento’s choreography) ran for more than two years. The powerful work will soon be available to Cincinnati audiences in Over-the-Rhine’s 556-seat Memorial Hall.
The renovated 1908 building, now in service as an event venue for nearly two years, has hosted concerts and speakers, but this theatrical concert staging is a first. Joshua Steele, the facility’s manager, previously managed The Carnegie in Covington and put together a series of “lightly staged” shows there.
“The medium is really interesting to me as a producer, especially at Memorial Hall,” Steele says. “It allows us to present repertoire that wouldn’t be possible as a fully realized production in our space. In general, the format can give life to shows that might be technically or financially unwieldy, but which can thrive in a pared-down setting.”
“Tommy allows us to dip our toe into theatrical waters while embracing the popular music programming that’s been so successful at Memorial Hall,” he continues. “It’s our hope that patrons who have seen artists like Graham Nash, Arlo Guthrie and Victor Wooten will come out and hear the music of The Who, and that we can welcome new musical theater patrons as well.”
Steele has recruited actress and dancer Leslie Goddard to direct and choreograph Tommy for four performances across two weekends in September. With Broadway experience and more recent onstage work locally for Ensemble Theatre, The Carnegie (she played Roxie Hart in a production of Chicago that Steele produced) and Dayton’s Human Race Theatre Company, she is a fine choice.
The success of a production like this depends on onstage talent, Steele believes.
“Without the trappings for a fully realized show, the quality of the overall experience is even more in the hands of the performers,” he says. “You also need a production team who enjoys working within unique constraints, have broad imaginations and are willing collaborators. Leslie has been terrific in this respect.”
Tommy’s story begins at age 4 when he witnesses his father — who was thought to be dead but then unexpectedly returns from a World War II POW camp — shoot and kill the man who has become his mother’s lover. Although he is shielded from the violent act, Tommy sees it reflected in a mirror and is traumatized. He withdraws completely by becoming deaf, dumb and blind, and remains unresponsive to efforts ranging from well-intended to abusive to reach him — until he’s introduced to pinball at a youth club and plays brilliantly.
He becomes a hero, a “Pinball Wizard,” and a subject of fan adulation for people yearning to understand his recovery and his gifts. Only when he breaks free from the horrific image in the mirror does he become truly free.
In a recent interview, Goddard said she performed in prior productions of Tommy, one as a student at New York University and another at a professional theater in Michigan. She and her husband David are both choreographers (although he now works as a psychologist); David and Steele are high school friends. At dinner with Steele, Goddard pitched an idea: “You know what would be fun? If we did a concert version of some musical in this new space that you have,” she said. He quickly agreed.
This production won’t simply be actors standing at music stands. In fact, its dance captain is University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music musical theater grad Katie Johannigman, now teaching and directing at UC. The production will feature projections developed for Broadway. Music director Steve Goers (a regular at Cincinnati Playhouse, Ensemble Theatre, CCM and elsewhere) is leading a band. Goers also has interesting plans to use Sycamore High School’s 24-voice select choral ensemble, which performed with Foreigner last summer at Riverbend.
Goddard’s cast of 13 local professional performers should be up to the challenge, led by Northern Kentucky University alum Noah Berry as Tommy and Wright State University alum Zack Steele as Captain Walker. “There will be full-out dancing,” Goddard says. “They are awesome dancers and actors. It should be fun to watch them sing and dance this score.”
She mapped out a rigorous rehearsal schedule, preparing intensively for a week-and-a-half prior to the Sept. 14 opening. “The ensemble has been going full-tilt through rehearsals, from 10 in the morning until 10 at night, pounding it out and putting it together,” she says.
Goddard definitely wanted this production to go beyond actors reading from scripts.
“We’ll have great lights and an amazing band, vocalists that blow your head off — exciting in that way, and the story comes across through that kind of telling of it,” she says, adding, “There’s some stuff in this show that is not child-friendly, and we plan to gloss through that a little bit as we get to the meat of the story.”
The show’s message, Goddard says, is about looking within yourself rather than to other people.
“The imagery of that mirror breaking open is central,” she says. “People need to live their own lives, find out what is true for them and go forward. I hope everyone will hear that message and take it forward into their everyday lives. Your mind is the one you need to use, more important than following some person. Tommy is the one who says, ‘I don’t want you to be like me. You are all individuals and you are special; you all have something important to say.’”
The Who’s Tommy will be performed September 14-15 and Sept. 20-21 at Memorial Hall (1225 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine). Tickets/more info: memorialhallotr.com.
