The Who’s Tommy is coming back to Broadway next year. The musical is set to open at the Nederlander Theatre on March 28, with previews beginning March 8.
The version of the show coming to Broadway is a brand new staging featuring a cast of 28 and a nine-piece band. Directed by original Tommy director, Des McAnuff, it debuted at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in June with 36 sold-out performances, making it the highest grossing production in the history of the Goodman.
Based on The Who’s 1969 album and 1975 film, the original production of Tommy opened at the La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, California, on July 1, 1992. It opened on Broadway on April 22, 1993, and closed on June 17, 1995. It won five Tony Awards, including Best Direction for McAnuff and Best Original Score for Pete Townshend.
“In 1969, when I originally wrote Tommy with The Who, nobody had ever written popular music songs about trauma, nobody talked about bullying, domestic sexual abuse was a subject that was virtually censored,” The Who’s Pete Townshend shares. “Then, in 1993, working with Des on the staged theatre piece, we broke the established rules for a musical show. Now, the current generation is breaking all of those rules again—and what Des has achieved with this incredible new production honors them and their courage and audacity.”
In other The Who news, the band revealed on Instagram that they’ll be making a special announcement on Friday, October 27, “about two of their studio albums which were released in the month of October.” The post just happened to come on the same day as the 50th anniversary of the release of their album Quadrophenia.
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