Pete Townshend Explains 'Tommy'

It's Back on Broadway. From a 1993 Interview

The Who’s Tommy is back on Broadway, at the Nederlander Theatre. Once again, it is staged by its original theatrical director, Des McAnuff. Many of us sacrificed our hearing to performances of the 1969 album Tommy by The Who, of what was then billed as a “rock opera” (a valid term, as explained and articulated below by the amused New York Times opera critic who saw its performance at the Metropolitan Opera in 1970). I doubt that any of us imagined that so many years later, people could go with their senior center tour groups to see “Pinball Wizard” and the “Acid Queen” in productions of what is now a mainstay of musical theater. Just like South Pacific. Or Oklahoma! In 1993, before its debut at the St. James Theater for a run that last for more than two years, and would win five TONY awards, I sat down to talk with The Who’s guitarist and songwriter Pete Townshend, its musical creator. This post originally appeared on Substack almost two years ago, one of 180 articles now in the Criti…