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The Who's Tommy

The Who’s Tommy

Shows · The Who’s Tommy

Young Tommy Walker witnesses his father murder his mother’s lover and is told by his parents that he didn’t see or hear anything. The trauma renders Tommy deaf, dumb, and blind. Abused by his cousin and uncle, Tommy retreats into an inner world until he discovers a miraculous talent for pinball. His pinball wizardry makes him famous, and when a mirror finally shatters his psychological prison, Tommy is hailed as a me…

Opened
1993
Performances
899
Type
Musical
Era
Megamusical
Music: Pete TownshendLyrics: Pete TownshendBook: Pete Townshend, Des McAnuff

Recordings 1 album held

The Who's Tommy
The Who's Tommy [no label]. 2011

Licensing not confirmed

Rights — We have not been able to confirm the publisher.

Read from the licensor's own pages and catalogues. Rights move, and an empty row means we have not confirmed a publisher, not that the show cannot be licensed.

In the literature10 passages

The Who’s Tommy, a rock musical based on the film Tommy, bows at the St. James Theater and plays for 899 performances. book:historical-dictionary-of-the-broadway-musical-volume-22-william-a-everett-paul-r#p32

In 1992 Cerveris was cast in the title role in The Who’s Tommy, a show that combined musical theater and rock-and-roll. book:the-stephen-sondheim-encyclopedia-rick-pender-rowman-littlefield-publishing-lanh#p110

The Who’s Tommy 900 performances Opened April 22, 1993 Closed June 17, 1995 book:theatre-world-2009-2010-season-v-66-willis#p457

Russell Harvard played the title role in The Who’s Tommy at Maryland’s Open Circle Theatre in 2016, appeared off-Broadway in Craig Lucas’s I Was Most Alive with You in 2018, and on Broadway in Sam Gold’s King Lear (2019). book:broadway-bodies-ryan-donovan-2023#p218

produced acclaimed revivals of Guys and Dolls, making a star of Nathan Lane, The Who’s Tommy, and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, starring Matthew Broderick. book:razzle-dazzle-the-battle-for-broadway-michael-riedel-2015-simon-schuster-limited#p411

Their biggest problem, he said, was that they were up against The Who’s Tommy, which was coming into New York on the strength of rave reviews from the La Jolla Playhouse. book:singular-sensation-the-triumph-of-broadway-the-triumph-of-michael-riedel-first-a#p166

Passages naming this show, found by keyword across 178 books. Where this show turns up in the literature, not curated trivia about it.

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