The Boy Who Heard Music (review of 6/14 matinee)

[Taryn]

Posted: 7/15/07 at 1:01am

I was lucky enough to get tickets to the matinee of the staged concert reading of The Boy Who Heard Music, Pete Townshend's new show that's workshopping at Vassar. I'm a theatre junkie who also happens to be a huge fan of Pete and the rest of the Who, so as soon as I found out about it I bought tickets.

It certainly had it's flaws, but I'm really glad that I went. I'm not sure if it'll end up with a major commercial run anywhere, because it doesn't scream out HIT and it doesn't have the background of respect that Tommy had, but I think it has a wealth of potential in the story.

The show was presented at Vassar's lovely Martel Theatre, a smallish venue (I believe it seats around 300). The band (the music director, who played piano, a drummer, two guitarists, and a bassist) were set up on stage behind three standing mics, where a good deal of the performance took place.

A good portion of the music comes from the new Who album Endless Wire (including all of the miniopera, Wire and Glass, and a few other numbers), along with some (excellent) new numbers written by Townshend, one co-authored with his girlfriend Rachel Fuller, and one that she has sole writing credit for. For those of you who may only be familiar with Tommy...it's different. Obviously, it's been over thirty years since he wrote Tommy, and while it's still obviously Pete's, his writing has changed over the years. Fortunately, the miniopera section of the new album contains the best material.

The story, in summary, is narrated by Ray High (John Hickok), an aging rockstar now in an insane asylum. As a young rocker (back in the 60's and 70's), Ray had the idea...well, basically of music connecting people via a "Grid" that is very like today's internet. This is a concept Pete Townshend rather brilliantly first started exploring back in the early 70's, involving music that could reflect every person in an audience. The entire concept it fairly complex (try looking at Wikipedia for a better explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifehouse_%28album%29) and bears a striking resemblance to ideas of the internet and virtual reality before either existed.

Anyways, back to the plot, Ray gets older and witnesses three kids of different religious and cultural backgrounds growing up in the same neighborhood as best friends: Josh (Jon Patrick Walker), who hears voices, Gabriel (Matt McGrath), who hears music, and Leila (Bree Sharp), who can fly (although whether this is figurative or literal is never quite explained). They discover Ray High's old material and form a rock band. Josh uses the voices to write the poetry that becomes lyrics, Gabriel writes the music, and Leila becomes the driving force behind the band thematically. The hint of conflict begins in the first act with the knowledge that both boys are in love with Leila. The second act picks up after the band has become wildly successful, which has proved devastating for their personal lives. Leila has chosen Gabriel and they marry, but a sexual darkness becomes apparent in Leila and Gabriel retreats into drugs, alcohol, and infidelity. Josh, continuing to hear voices, becomes isolated from the other two, though still in love with Leila.

Hickok and Walker stood out to me as being the most comfortable and natural on stage. Hickok, with his handsome looks aging well, definitely looks like a man who might once have had screaming fans. Walker has a strong presence both physically and vocally. Sharp struggled a bit as a younger Leila in the first act, but really came into her own as the dark, troubled rock princess in the second act. McGrath, on the other hand, had an amazingly few number of moments that I liked him. He wasn't believable to me as an awkward teen or as an overindulgent rock star, and the music seemed horribly mis-matched to his voice, which was frequently extremely nasal.

This is one of the few times I have watched a show (even just being a staged concert reading) and have enjoyed the second act more than the first. The second act provided much stronger thematic elements and a bit more dialogue to flesh out the storyline between themes. The piece on the whole had a lot of strengths, and I can see a visionary type of director and an intelligent bookwriter doing some very great things with it. However, I'm not sure of the likelihood of that. This doesn't have the pedigree of Tommy (nor, quite honestly, is the music as good as that classic album) and, while it draws some very strong characters, the whole concept of the Grid and the Method Leila later has the band pursue to try and complete Ray High's work is a big difficulty. Hell, Townshend's been trying to get this in a fully-formed rock opera since '71 with Who's Next. (Apparently even his own bandmates didn't get it.)

I'm missing a few things that'd I'd like to say, but this is long enough as it is, and I forgot my program with the song listing in my friend's backpack, so...hopefully there will be some Who fans who are interested in hearing what this was like.

[Taryn]

Posted: 7/16/07 at 2:28pm

Bumping for any big Who fans who might be interested.