The Who's Tommy

By Joseph Cervelli

In the middle of the explosive and mesmerizing revival of "The Who's Tommy" at the Nederlander Theater, Ali Louis Bourzgui in the title role breaks into "Sensation." A most apt song for this young performer to sing for he is quite sensational. Well, there is nothing that is less than breathtaking here. I fell in love with the original which I saw back in 1993. I could not imagine that this production could be better, but it is. There is a modern feel to it thanks to changes in the book and the direction by Des McAnuff who was at the helm of the original production. 

A huge amount of credit has to go to projection designer Peter Nigrini who creates a dizzying array of nonstop shapes in various directions that are significant because it is the way our hero envisions what is happening around him when he can no longer speak, hear or see. Adding to the projections is David Korins smartly intricate set design. 

The story takes place in Britain in which Captain Walker (Adam Jacobs) is sent to war and his pregnant wife (Alison Luff) is given the tragic news of his death. Some time passes and she and her four year old (played  by Cecilia Ann Popp at the performance I attended)  are living with her brutish lover (a perfectly menacing Nathan Lucrezio). When Captain Walker who is very much alive comes to the door there is a fight and he kills the lover. This is when Tommy is so affected by this he goes into a kind of stupor. Brought to different hospitals for treatment he has lost all three senses.  Six years pass and Tommy (played at this performance by Quinten Kusheba) has not improved. Both children are wonderful in not very easy roles. True no dialogue but their faces need to be blank and they accomplish this most admirably. With their curly haired wigs they look so much like the grown Tommy. 

Tragically, Tommy goes from being sexually abused by "Uncle" Ernie (a scary John Ambrosino) to one quack doctor to another but suddenly at a pinball arcade he becomes a genius at playing. As time goes on he has a following. To the pseudo adoring crowd he becomes a hero, savior, prophet, etc. That is until he returns to normal again. That is when they turn against him and want nothing to do with a man who can offer them nothing. 

While the Nederlander is smaller than the St. James Theater where the show originated it works better here. You feel yourself drawn more into his world and the spectacle of the brilliant lighting by Amanda Sieve is never overdone. While the sound design is loud we need to compliment sound engineer for being able to understand all the lyrics clearly. And Peter Townshend's jaw dropping score sounds as fresh as when it was first written. 

All the performances are on the top of their game. Bourgzui not only has a powerful voice but his body movements touchingly exhibit his inner feelings. Christina Sajous is the best Acid Queen I have seen. As much as I adored Tina Turner, she overplayed the role in the disastrous movie version. Here Sajous plays it in a seductively frightening manner which works perfectly. I was excited to see what the always terrific Bobby Conte ("A Bronx Tale" and "Company") could do with the role of Cousin Kevin. Let's not forget this talented young actor come award time. 

I would be truly amiss not to mention Lorin Latarro's wildly varied stunning choreography. This talented young choreography never seems to get the recognition she has deserved in previous musicals. Let's hope this is not the case here.

Thanks to all involved in this production of  "Tommy" which feels fresher and even more moving than I imagined it could be. 

PHOTOS: Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman

Tickets are available at the Nederlander Theater 208 West 41st Street.

 

The Notebook The Musical

By Joseph Cervelli

While I never read Nicholas Sparks' huge best seller "The Notebook," I loved every moment of the beautifully moving film of the same title. 

The musical version of the novel at the Schoenfeld Theatre which is based not on the film but on the book adapted by Bekah Brunstetter is sad to say a let down. It does not help that the score with bland music and trite lyrics by Ingrid Michaelson does nothing to enhance the storyline nor move things along.

The show begins promising enough with the Older Noah (Dorian Harewood) staying in an Extended Care Facility to be with his  (no spoiler here) wife Older Allie (a wonderful performance by Maryann Plunkett) who is suffering from Alzheimer's. He reads to her from a journal which she wrote as her disease started to take hold. Besides the serious moments in the journal about love there are also some amusing ones. Harewood is good but for some reason I did not find his performance as touching as I would have expected.  Still the last scene was very well done and he came into his own at that moment. Plunkett was outstanding in every way as Allie. Her mood swings so typical of Alzheimer's patients and the blank look one moment and then recognition of Noah was superbly and realistically rendered.

We are introduced to the Younger Noah (John Cardoza) splashing in the water (action takes place in a coastal town in the Mid-Atlantic) with the Younger Allie's (Jordan Tyson.) Both of these performers are excellent and have a great career ahead of them. They are believable and their voices are strong and lovely. Yet, too bad, they don't have a better score to sing. Lyrics like "It's sadness and it's joy; it's light and then it's dark...." are banal.   I love sentimental stories and songs but this particular score just felt much too saccharine and the music undistinguished. We also meet Allie's friend Georgie (Dorcas Leung) and Noah's friend Fin (Carson Stewart.) While both are very good somehow they feel more like fillers to the story than anything else

Ally's parents do not approve of Noah for he works at a lumber yard while Allies dad who is a successful maker of planes (Charles E. Wallace) and the same for her her mom (Andrea Burns). The mother just feels he is like any other boy wanting one thing only. Think we have heard that line before in so many other shows. 

When Noah joins the armed forces his letters to Allie are intercepted by her mom and Allie thinks he was killed while Noah just thinks she is no longer interested.  

We are now introduced to the the Middle Noah (Ryan Vasquez) and his counterpart Allie (Joy Woods). If Brunstetter had, perhaps, not kept segueing from the middle couple  back to the younger ones and vice versa we might have been more taken with the characters. It was very difficult to feel anything for their  plights with the way the book suddenly jumps from each of them back to the older couple. While middle Allie is now engaged she flies back where she spent the summer first meeting Noah and goes back to the house that Noah wanted to renovate since he was a young man. She then finds out about the missing letters. She decides to go back home but here something felt off kilter. She is boarding the plane and then the next scene she is with Noah. Then you see her again with Noah but only now with luggage. 

Even before this scene just mentioned this is where the musical becomes disjointed which is very surprising considering an accomplished director like Michael Greif is at the helm. Unless co-director Schele Williams had this in mind.  And having so many characters intertwining with each other in one ensemble scene all singing simultaneously lessens the effect of the musical and does not work dramatically. Instead, their particular relationships become too superficial. 

Both Vasquez and Woods are outstanding performers with star quality. I could easily see Vasquez in a revival of the shamefully underrated "The Bridges of Madison County" and Woods a lead in a musical written with her in mind. 

What is strange is that the Younger Noah kept speaking about how his renovations of an old neighborhood  house will be perfect for Ally and him. So, when middle Allie goes back and sees what Noah has completed you may wonder what indeed has been done. As designed by David Zinn all you see basically is just the framework of the inside of a house. Surely, something could have been done to make it look like he had spent years working on his dream home. It looks like he just moved in. 

Katie Spelman is listed as the choreographer though I found very little if any dancing. 

The cast is indeed terrific but the musical is lacking in so many departments which is truly unfortunate.

PHOTOS: Juliana Cervantes

Tickets are available at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre 236 West 45th Street.