Theatre Register
Tommy: Highlights: Original Cast Recording

Tommy

Shows · Tommy

Written in 1969 as a rock opera by Peter Townshend and recorded by the British rock group The Who, Tommy was performed by the group in a concert version around the world; at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1970 and made into a Ken Russell film in 1975. Peter Townshend and director Des McAnuff have softened the story of the young boy who loses all his senses when, at the age of four, he witnesses his father killing hi…

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

Productions3 on Broadway

1927 Gaiety Theatre Original. January 10, 1927 · predates this show 232 performances
1933 Forrest Theatre Revival. August 7, 1933 · Alan Bunce · predates this show 24 performances
1993 St. James Theatre Revival. April 22, 1993 · Des McAnuff 899 performances

Every Broadway staging held in broadway-data, sourced to IBDB. 2 of these predate the show itself and are almost certainly a different work of the same name. Shown, marked, not merged. West End runs are not yet held.

Licensing 1 entry

US Music Theatre International The Who's Tommy matched on title alone — a lead, not a confirmed licensor

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 literature28 passages

On April 22, 1993, this theatre saw the Broadway premiere of The Who's Tommy, the legendary rock opera by Pete Townshend (with additional music and lyrics by fellow Who rockers John Entwistle and Keith Moon), directed by Des McAnuff. The show dazzled critics and audiences with its multimedia effects and driving force. book:at-this-theatre-100-years-of-broadway-shows-stories-and-botto-louis-viagas-rober#p282

Lone with Dreamgirls, Kiss of the Spider Woman, and Tommy Tune’s other visual extravaganza, Nine, Grand Hotel was one of the truly towering directorial achievements of the last twenty-five years. book:broadway-musicals-the-101-greatest-shows-of-all-time-bloom-ken-1949-vlastnik-fra#p144

ROCK MUSICAL. A musical that includes a significant amount of rock music in its score. Notable examples include Hair (1968), Jesus Christ Superstar (1971), Little Shop of Horrors (1982), The Who’s Tommy (1993), Rent (1996), Mamma Mia! (2001), and Spring Awakening (2006). book:historical-dictionary-of-the-broadway-musical-volume-22-william-a-everett-paul-r#p335

The success on Broadway of British rock operas (Jesus Christ Superstar, 1971; Evita, 1979; Tommy, 1993) book:showtime-a-history-of-the-broadway-musical-theatre-larry-stempel#p438

The !Vlzo's Tommy was originally marketed as a rock album. book:showtime-a-history-of-the-broadway-musical-theatre-larry-stempel#p652

The Who's Tommy was a concept album in which an implied story linked the separate song tracks, and later became a Broadway musical in 1993 with The Who absent from the performance. book:showtime-a-history-of-the-broadway-musical-theatre-larry-stempel#p655

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

Something wrong here? Correct a field or report the problem. Every change is recorded in public under the contributor licence.