The Boy Who Heard Music - Musical Workshop
Powerhouse Theater - Vassar College - July 13 & 14, 2007
Program Scans by Brian Lynch
Josh and Leila
Ray High
Kevin Kuhn
John Puttnam
From left to right: Drummer (david van tieghem), Leila, Gabriel, Keyboard (Ted Baker), Ray High and Josh.
Photos by GeorgeL
Online Articles: Reuters, NYDailyNews, CBC, CinemaBlend, Philly, Powerhouse Brochure
Review by Brian Lynch
When I say the performance was done in workshop mode, I mean the four players (Gabriel, Leila, Ray and Josh) all essentially were wearing street clothes, working off of notebooks for the lyrics and on stage with no props and the five piece band right on stage with them performing.
My wife knew the music but didn't know the story but now wishes to read TBWHM so she can get more into the characters.
Gabriel had some good cracks about getting to close to "internet fans" (us!).
The first act was primarily music with sparse dialogue so you had to rely on the music to tell the story. You needed to pay attention to get the story. The second act had more dialogue to spell things out.
Think of this performance as the equivalent to a rough draft of a written piece. There was no props, wardrobe etc... like you would have expected. My wife and I were just as much entertained by the story regardless. We were expecting a proper play but went away being more interested in the workshop process of performing the piece as a standalone piece.
I was next to some elderly people who were enjoying the show but I think dialogue would have helped them more in the first act to spell some of the roles and themes out to them.
The music was rock and roll and performed by professional players, two guitarists who were great and a bassist who was also great. The drummer filled the little theater with powerful drumming and the keyboardist acted as conductor and musical director as well. His image was projected upstairs behind me on two huge screens to conduct the players throughout.
The theater only held roughly 375 people, it was nice and cozy.
Review by mfox004
I have to say, the music held up. I can see some songs being eliminated, RGLB and Marty Robbins but the rest of them converted well to musical format. It was a true thrill to finally hear It's Not Enough played live. I wish it was by the Who but this was the next best thing.
I think the way this works is they put on a general gist of a play, no set to speak of, no costumes and the players reading from notebooks but they did have most of the music in place, they have the idea of a script but if this project were to go forward they would need a real script, more in depth covering a better range of the back story.
The actors who played Josh, Gabriel and Leila were very good, awesome singers. They managed to get across the personalities of the characters even if you didn't read the novella, if you did then all of the sudden they became more interesting. The dynamic between them is very interesting. The physical relationship between Josh and Leila and the emotional/cerebral relationship between Gabriel and Leila came through and the true brotherly relationship between Josh and Gabriel was hard to interpret correctly, it could almost come across as homosexual. I don't think it is but I think it could be seen that way. For me the jury is still out on the guy who played Ray High, I don't think that guy was big enough (I don't mean in physical size I mean, larger than life).
The backing band and musical director were awesome, really great.
As for me, I can see this working on Broadway or off Broadway. It could actually be an audience interactive kind of play. I have to admit it took every fiber of my being not to get up on my feet and sing and dance along. I know the performers really dug the fact that several of the people in the audience knew the music and knew it well, we got lots of smiles.
I think this is really a great discussion possibility as I think this may be taking up a lot of Pete's time in the near and distant future. Rachel's too as her song I Can Fly from Shine featured prominently in the show.
It seems to me there are three themes running through the play, Trilby's Piano. Fragments and In the Ether. All the songs were the ones we are familiar with, a verse was added to RGLB but it was clunky and it didn't work. I imagine that one will end up on the cutting room floor so to speak. They changed Hymie to Simon and sang it "Simey" I figure that will be changed too. I am not sure why they took Hymie out maybe not PC?? Not sure? I really feel it has merit as a show though.
Review by GeorgeL
I really enjoyed the musical. As all Townshend pieces are it really plays with your mind, makes you think and is all over the place. I think this story is much deeper than we think and will really evolve over time. I didn't get a chance to read through the novella but I am going to get a hold of it now and read it. Pete got my attention with this story. It almost felt like he was portraying himself through all the characters at certain points throughout the piece. Hard to explain but you have to see it to understand (or I suck at trying to recount the experience and explain thoroughly).
I must say the musicians did a tremendous job replicating the music. It was very powerful, especially in such a small theatre. I would absolutely love for the who to play a small set of these shows live with real actors on stage (like Pete did with PsychoD). I think it would be awesome! BTW, Its Not Enough was fucking awesome live. I wish the boys did this live this past tour.
I did notice during the last line or so on T&T they left out "the two of us" line.
Overall I had a great time and for $25 you couldn't go wrong. I thought it went over very well except for all the cursing. I loved it but I did notice some of the older farts whimper.