The kids are alright

From the minute the house lights dimmed for the opening-night performance of The Who’s Tommy, the energy was nonstop and infectious. Despite a bizarre, depressing story with several narrative flaws, as well as technical glitches that plagued the performance, the Truckee Meadows Community College troupe and the band that performs live for the duration of the show maintained such high energy that the audience was carried swiftly along in the current of enthusiasm.

The story goes like this: Mr. Walker goes to World War II, leaving Mrs. Walker and their son, Tommy. Back home, everyone thinks Mr. Walker is killed. Mrs. Walker takes a lover. The war ends. Mr. Walker comes home to find his wife in the arms of another man. Mrs. Walker realizes Tommy has entered the room. To avert his eyes, she turns Tommy toward the wall, where he faces a mirror and sees Mr. Walker shoot his wife’s lover.

Mr. Walker is tried for murder and cleared, but it’s too late for Tommy, who was struck deaf, dumb and blind by the trauma. The Walkers are exhausted, and repeatedly leave Tommy with relatives who abuse him, sexually and physically.

But eventually Tommy discovers he has one talent: The boy plays a mean pinball.

But the story is sort of secondary to the music. From beginning to end of one of the first true rock operas, the story is conveyed through The Who’s powerful, driving music, with hits like “Pinball Wizard” and “Tommy, Can You Hear Me?”

And unfortunately, no, we couldn’t hear anyone over the music in several places. Tommy is loud, which is tough when following the story means hearing the songs’ lyrics. It was made worse when a couple of microphones stopped working.

But glitches like this didn’t stop the cast members, who belted tunes and threw their whole bodies into elaborate, impressive choreography, changing costumes in a frenzy and even climbing onto precariously narrow, high spaces. I really appreciated the complexity of the staging and scenery in helping to convey the plot visually, since the lyrics in so many of the songs in the show just don’t make a whole lot of sense (when I could hear them).

Special kudos go out to the band: Ted Owens, Chris Portugal, Josh Yelle, Justin Katausky, Rob Shader and Miguel Henares. Obviously, the music plays the lead role here. It’s enormously percussion-heavy and maintains a high degree of energy throughout, so sustaining that energy is impressive.

Two performances I particularly enjoyed were those of both young men playing Tommy: Elijah Frederick in the boyhood role, and Adam Semas as the grown-up. Frederick handles the show’s sensitive issues with grace, despite speaking hardly a word. And Semas’ vocal power is remarkable. He kept up with the music’s volume while jumping on rafters for some challenging choreography. Oh, and he looks great shirtless, too.

Any role Jenny O plays has memorability and charisma. Here, as the gypsy (“The Acid Queen”) who promises to cure Tommy with drugs and her sexual wiles, she ably carried the soulful song that’s been performed by the likes of Tina Turner and Patti LaBelle.

The show itself, I admit, I’m not crazy about. It’s riddled with narrative flaws (So Mrs. Walker immediately embraces the husband who just shot her lover? Really? And they just go home and expect to pick up where they left off?) Much of the music, in my opinion, feels dated and forgettable. But TMCC’s production is packed with style, talent and heart.