Connecticut Repertory Theatre Presents The Who's TOMMY, 4/22-5/1

Connecticut Repertory Theatre (CRT) will present the smash-hit Broadway Musical The Who's Tommy, April 22 - May 1, 2010 in the Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre on the Storrs campus. 

Tommy

Book by Pete Townshend & Des McAnuff
Additional Music & Lyrics by John Entwistle & Keith Moon
Based on The Who's Rock-Opera, Tommy

Young Tommy witnesses a violent crime and is rendered deaf, dumb and blind. Tommy's incredible transformation from catatonia to stardom as a pinball celebrity is told through The Who's immortal songs including "Pinball Wizard," "See Me, Feel Me," "Listening to You" and "We're Not Gonna Take It."

"Somewhere between arousal and a prayer, between raw blues and high opera: Pete Townshend's insistent, accelerating intro to "Pinball Wizard" is seven bars of the most exhilarating rock ever made." - L.A. Times

Audiences follow the story through the eyes of the title character who undergoes the heartbreaking and triumphant journey of a young boy stripped of his youth by violence and abuse. The CRT production will employ a variety of elements including liquid projections, an oversized pinball machine, and a style of puppetry known as shadow play (produced by UConn's world class puppet artists). Tommy is a striking, rousing, rock opera that touches the heart and excites the senses. The cast includes two Equity actors alongside CRT's advanced student artists. A full rock combo will support the singers, actors, and dancers.

Director Gabe Barre said, "I'm thrilled to be back at Connecticut Repertory Theatre directing Tommy and exploring another rich piece from the 1960's after doing Hair here last year. Hair was ground breaking theatre that explored the world of a tribe of hippies on the streets of New York and the world around them, while Tommy is groundbreaking rock and roll that explores the life of a superstar onstage and the world within him. Our production will emphasize the idea of enlightenment through the senses, through stillness and through music ... We will be inside Tommy's head and see, feel and touch the world as he does ... This is what live theatre can do that no other medium can ... reach out ... engage and invigorate. Enlarge, enliven and enlighten. The piece attracts me because I feel that we can all identify somewhat with Tommy. He is numb from the world and is forced to work from within to seek his own path. When he breaks free however, the piece doesn't stop there, but only gets more interesting. We see how eager the unenlightened public is to idolize and blindly follow him, and how seductive this is to Tommy ... all so relevant to our, particularly American, culture of instant stardom and celebrity preoccupation."

Dramaturg Dassia Posner said, "The unrelenting rhythms and startling images of our production of Tommy boldly confront the difficulties of life and celebrate the resilience of the human spirit."

THE CREATIVE TEAM
Gabe Barre (Director): directed CRT's production of HAIR last season, as well as Love's Labours Lost the year before that. He has off-Broadway credits which include the Manhattan Theatre Club's production of Andrew Lippa's, The Wild Party (nominated for 13 Outer Critics Circle Awards including one for Best Director), Summer of '42, Stars in Your Eyes, Honky-Tonk Highway, john & jen and Almost, Maine. He directed the recent national tour of Pippin which started at the Goodspeed Musicals Opera House, as well as the national tour of Rodger and Hammerstein's Cinderella, starring Eartha Kitt, which was on the road over a three year period including stops at Madison Square Garden and the Papermill Playhouse in New Jersey. His regional theatre credits include a revival of Flower Drum Song and a production of Little Shop of Horrors at the American Musical Theatre of San Jose as well as, Private Lives at Seattle Repertory Theatre, Tom Jones and Memphis, at the North Shore Music Theatre in Boston, Sweeney Todd, Finian's Rainbow, Houdini and many other new musicals at Goodspeed; Stand By Your Man at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville; and Hay Fever and Pericles at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey. He recently directed the world premiere of the new Frank Wildhorn musical, Carmen, which is in its second sold out year in Prague, Czech Republic and where he'll be returning this summer to direct Jesus Christ Superstar. He is also due to direct the world premiere of the new musical, Tears of Heaven later this year in Soeul, South Korea. As an actor he has been nominated for a Tony Award and appears often in film and on TV.

Musical Director (Ken Clark): has been a lecturer in the music department since 1981 and has worked with the Drama Dept. since 1979. Recent work includes: Sweeney Todd (EO Smith High School); A Christmas Carol (Hartford); Hair, and Abraham Lincoln's Big Gay Dance Party (CRT); Endurance (Split Knuckle Theater); Orphan's Home Cycle, and Our Town (Hartford Stage); the Fantasticks (Windham Theater Guild).

Choreographer (Matthew Neff): Choreography/Crazy Head Space (@ Seaport and T. Schreiber Studios, NYC), JUNK music video for Project Jenny Project Jan, Pacific Encore (Documentary for Public Television), Oklahoma! (Summer Lyric Theater, NOLA ),Telluride AIDS Benefit (Telluride, CO) Puck'd: What Fools These Mortals Be (Little Theater, NYC). Performance/ FILM: Across The Universe, Clear Blue Tuesday THEATER TOURS: Oklahoma! (Ensemble/Dance Captain), The Music Man (Linus Dunlop), George M! (Archie/Dance Captain) CONCERT: Rooms by Anna Sokolow. Performed in Anna Sokolow's Memorial at The Joyce Theater. Also in work by Jose Limon, Mark Morris, Chet Walker, Charlotte Griffin and others.

THE CAST

The cast will feature Equity actors, Laura Beth Wells as Mrs. Walker, and Jon Conver as Tommy. It will also feature graduate acting students Brian Patrick Williams as Mr. Walker, Robert Thompson, Jr. as Uncle Ernie, and undergraduate acting student Noah Weintraub as Uncle Kevin.
Laura Beth Wells (Mrs. Walker) is making her Connecticut Repertory Theatre debut in TOMMY! Favorite past credits include Sally in Cabaret (Arts Center of Coastal Carolina), Louise in Gypsy (Forestburgh Playhouse), Rizzo in Grease (North Carolina Theatre), Rhetta in Pump Boys and Dinettes (WV Public and Porthouse Theatre), Gwendolyn in The Importance of Being Ernest (Calaveras Repertory Theatre) and Gwendolyn Pigeon in The Odd Couple (Ivoryton Playhouse). In the fall, Laura Beth is slated to appear on Broadway as Emily Osborne in Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark, a new musical directed by Julie Taymor.

Jon Conver (Tommy) Past Credits include: Tours of Europe & Japan - The Who's Tommy (Tommy); Regional - Jesus Christ Superstar (Jesus), West Side Story (Baby John), Frankenstein: The Musical (William); TV/Film - Law & Order SVU: "Dependent" (Mark), The Burningmore Incident (Doug Fox).

Brian Patrick Williams (Mr. Walker) is a 2nd year Graduate Actor at UConn. Past Credits include: CRT - The Comedy of Errors (Merchant), Galileo (Ludovico Marsili), The Exonerated (Rhodes), Hair (Claude), Pericles (Helicanus); Waterside Theatre - Jesus Christ Superstar (Jesus), The Lost Colony (U/S - Historian/Raleigh); UConn - the Graduate Actor project, The Winter's Tale (Polixenes); STAGES Theatre - Out of Order (George Pidgen), Equus (U/S - Alan Strang, Nugget); and FCC - The Cider House Rules, Parts 1 & 2 (Wally Worthington).

Noah Weintraub (Uncle Kevin) is a 4th year BFA Actor at the UCONN. Past credits include: CRT - Abraham Lincolns Big Gay Dance Party (Anton Renault), Hair (Woof), Spring Awakening (Hansy Rilow), The Threepenny Opera, Pentecost. He has also participated in theatrical readings of Jessica Litwak's Wider than the Sky (Ari, Adam, Andy), and Michael Bradford's The Rootwoman (Lucius Steady). SRT- How to Succeed In Business... (Finch), Rocky Horror Show Live (Riff Raff), Smokey Joes Café. HSRT- Closer Than Ever, Kiss Me Kate. This Summer Noah can be seen in RENT at the opening of the CRT Summer Nutmeg Theater.

Robert Thompson, Jr. (Uncle Ernie) is a 2nd year MFA Actor at UConn. CRT credits include: The Comedy of Errors (Solinus, Duke of Ephesus), Galileo (Bertolt Brecht/Ballad Singer), The Exonerated (Prosecutor), Hair (Tribe) and Pericles (Pander). UConn credits include: the Graduate Acting Project, The Winter's Tale (Camillo). He is a recent graduate from Western Illinois University with a BFA in Musical Theatre. Past credits include: Frank Butler in Annie Get your Gun at Rocky Mountain Repertory Theatre in Grand Lake, CO, Bill Calhoun in Kiss me Kate at the Hope Summer Repertory Theatre in Holland, MI and Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Hainnline Theatre in Macomb, IL. Most recently, this past summer, at The New Bedford Theatre Festival, he played Roger Debris in The Producers.

The ensemble cast will also feature MFA actors: Brooks Brantly, Kevin Coubal, Caroline Gombe, Gretchen Goode, Ryan Guess, Philip AJ Smithey, and Robert Thompson, Jr.; MFA puppeteer: Joseph Jonah Therrien; BFA actors: Ali Barton, Scott Cooke, Jack Fellows, Jeremy Garfinkel, Michelle Goodman, Brittany Green, Jordan Jones, Zak Kamin, Seth Koproski, Molly Martinez, Sarah Murdoch Billard, Rachel Rosado, and James Turner. Young Actors Aemi, Jacob, and James Mullin.

The Design team includes: Cassandra Beaver, Scenic Designer; Mark Novick, Lighting Designer; David O. Smith, Projection Designer; Arthur Oliver, Costume Designer; Emily Tritsch and Stefan Koniarz, Sound Design; Matthew Neff, Choreography; Michael Truman Cavanaugh, Puppetry; Dassia Posner, Dramaturg and Mary P. Costello, Stage Manager.

INFORMATION
Please call 860-486-4226 for tickets or for more information. Please call or visit the box office for specific show dates and times because performance schedules vary and are subject to change. Tickets available online at www.crt.uconn.edu.

Weeknight evening performances start at 7:30 p.m. Weekend evening performances start at 8 p.m. Matinee performances start at 2 p.m. Ticket prices range from $13- $35.

 

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