The powerful tale of a deaf, mute, and blind pinball player who becomes an international messiah bursts comes to the Evan Theatre at Penrith Panthers Leagues Club this week.
The Who’s Tommy is a theatrical adaptation of the original chart-topping rock album released in 1969. The exhilarating score is timeless in its youthful appeal, giving the show a cross-generational appeal.
After witnessing the accidental murder of his mother’s lover by his father, Tommy is traumatised into catatonia, and as the boy grows, he suffers abuse at the hands of his sadistic relatives and neighbours. As an adolescent, he’s discovered to have an uncanny knack for playing pinball, and when his mother finally breaks through his catatonia, he becomes an international pinball superstar.
This Blue Mountains Musical Society production, directed by Jessica Lovelace, is set in a world where physical human contact is reduced to a bare minimum in favour of viewing the world through a screen. It plays on the fears of technology and scientific development, taking us into the world of ‘reality’ TV and YouTube fame, where everything a family does is seen by the masses, criticised and commented on. The design takes inspiration from contemporary festivals such as Coachella and Glastonbury to blend the look of now with that of the iconic 60s and 70s.
The Blue Mountains Musical Societys’ production of TOMMY is playing this week only at the Even Theatre at Penrith Panthers. The show opens this Wednesday night at 8pm, then plays Thursday and Friday night at 8pm, Saturday at 2pm and 8pm with the final performance this Sunday at 2pm.
