Saturday night, at the last minute, some friends invited me out to see "Tommy" at the Ricardo Montalban theater in Hollywood. Who know Ricardo Montalban had his own theater? Disappointingly, the seats were not made of fine Corinthian leather. We got rush tickets at the door, and then had a quick dinner at a faux-Euro cafe around the corner. We were amazed to find that our seats were absolutely front row - no one in the audience was closer to the stage than us. Sometimes those can actually be bad seats, if the stage is too elevated, but in this case were right at eye level with the actors. I could have reached out and touched them. For $20!

The production made use of "high def" headphones to provide 3-dHD audio to supplement the performance. At first it allowed them to mix in some sound effects in a slightly more realistic way. Overall, however, either the mix wasn't very good or they just didn't use the technology to its full potential, because I found the headphones to be basically irrelevant. The performers were mic'ed and amplified even without the headphones. It was an odd choice, but I guess more of a gmimick than anything. Aside from that it was a great show - every single member of the cast was strong. it was a very big ensemble too, and all of them were incredibly energetic. Strangely, one of them was a dead ringer for joemorf, so much so it was a little distracting. This imposter, this clone...this... Faux-meo, if you will, did do a very amusing turn as the mad doctor who tries to cure Tommy of his affliction. If they had hired the real Fromeo, instead of the Fauxmeo, I don't doubt Tommy actually WOULD have been cured, making for a much shorter show.

Standout performances were from Cousin Vic, who had an incredible stage presence and limitless energy, and from all the Tommys. Because the music was written by and for Roger Daltry, it's pretty high - and all the singers seemed effortlessly able to soar up into high lyric tenor range. There wasn't a weak link in the chain. One of the accompanying friends, herself an accomplisehd and very professional dancer, was truly impressed by the choreography and dancing. I don't know enough to comment, except to say it was extremely high energy, and a lot of fun to watch. It's not a terribly long show, either - just under two hours, which works to its benefit, I think. It was just the right length for an enjoyable evening, and a great bargain, given our cheapo rush seats. It's playing through Tuesday (extended, due to popular demand) so if you have a spare $20 and evening, give it a shot.

Here's the original song by The Who - I couldn't find any footage from the Hollywood production.