# The Who's Tommy: the Musical **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 27, 2012, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whos-tommy-the-musical/616939 "2012-03-27T09:26:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MickNickMaggies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/59ef9b/32.png) [@MickNickMaggies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MickNickMaggies)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whos-tommy-the-musical/616939/21 "2012-03-28T16:15:43Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > The impression I get from the film, on the other hand, is “Good Lord, people did a lot of drugs in the '70s.” My husband’s comment on the situation was ‘Christ, Eric Clapton doesn’t even know where he is’. ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [March 28, 2012, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whos-tommy-the-musical/616939/22 "2012-03-28T17:22:29Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > As for the album, some of it is rather boring filler material, some of it is brilliant and some of it is underwhelming. You have to remember how avant-garde the concept of a rock opera was in 1969. The entire side four of the album is my favourite: I think it was the filler that got to me, especially if it was abutted by the boring stuff. I was looking forward to it because of its status as the first ‘rock opera’…I suppose I should give it another listen and pretend this time that I’ve never heard anything of the sort 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whos-tommy-the-musical/616939/23 "2012-03-29T12:32:45Z")
Hm…last night I saw a dude wearing one of those yellow ‘Tommy’ t-shirts. Haven’t seen one of them in ages. It’s a sign. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whos-tommy-the-musical/616939/24 "2012-03-29T13:35:18Z")
I still have the record album, wish I still had the picture inserts. The stark blue building with windows lit up with a spotlight at night just creeped me out (in a Russian propaganda poster from the 20’s or is it 30’s way) and I’ve actually dreamed about the album art on occasion over the years. And I bought that album at the K-Mart, crossing the highway at night, in winter, on a work break after just reading about it. So Tommy is enmeshed in my psyche. The movie was playing at a double theater. We couldn’t get in and had to see the other movie next to the Tommy one, and we could actually hear and feel vibrations from the music against the wall! Seeing it was a trip, but frankly I was a bit disturbed, and disappointed. The movie, like the album art, kinda creeped me out. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whos-tommy-the-musical/616939/25 "2012-03-29T23:01:41Z")
> [@shantih](#): > > I think of the movie as very much being of its time, and I was interested to see the differences in the stage production, particularly since the 70’s were not my favorite era. There seem to be several possible endings out there, but the staging I saw ended with Tommy locked into the metal structure in which he started, with the mask back over his face, and his anguished parents being reassured that the specialist and his people will care for him and keep trying to get through to him. I’ve been mulling over whether all the events after the mirror is broken were Tommy’s hallucination or his mother’s. FWIW that’s a _very_ different ending from either the movie (where director Ken Russel largely had free reign) or the original '90s Broadway/touring company version of the musical (where Pete Townshend was heavily involved). I’d assume it’s something the director of this production came up with. > [@Leaffan](#): > > The musical isn’t all _that_ different from the movie. Some scenes are impractical on stage, and were cut, and some songs had the lyrics tweaked but it’s pretty close in concept. Having seen both I’d have to say they’re similar pretty much _only_ in concept. The basic storyline, characters, and songs are the same, but the execution is dramatically different. Ken Russell also added or changed several things for the movie (most notoriously the lengthy biker fight sequence), and to the best of my recollection none of these changes are preserved in the musical except for shifting the setting to post WWII. On the original album Captain Walker apparently disappears during the _first_ World War, as he returns home in 1921 (in the song titled “1921”), but aside from that one song there’s no clear reference to the time period and the rest of the album doesn’t seem to be set that early. ---
**Author:** ![OldLobsterClaw](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/eb9ed0/32.png) [@OldLobsterClaw](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldLobsterClaw)\ **Post date:** [March 29, 2012, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whos-tommy-the-musical/616939/26 "2012-03-29T23:19:03Z")
> [@blondebear](#): > > You doing it wrong. You’re supposed listen to it with a candle burning! (rats, can’t find the appropriate clip from Almost Famous…) A candle ain’t the only thing that needs to be burning. Appropriate clip’s something different too. I guess you had to be there. To me the album had better visuals. 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-whos-tommy-the-musical/616939.md?page=1)