[정보] 랜디 록오페라 "The Who's Tommy" 총 정보 (7/7~7/16)

[B.Kinney]

BTF readies “Tommy” – The Who’s rock opera at Colonial

[세트사진]

(Updated 7/5) It’s been several months since the Colonial Theatre-Berkshire Theatre Festival schedule was announced and the first show to draw questions was the complex and wildly popular rock opera Tommy by Peter Townshend and The Who. Anticipation continues to build. (July 7-16, 2011) Undertaking a rock opera in the Berkshires is rare, especially this one. The Who’s Tommy was first released as a concept album in 1969, and then given the full Broadway treatment in 1993. It toured the country for a decade afterwards.

In 2011 the Berkshires will be one of the few places in the world where it can be seen in a fully staged production from the Berkshire Theatre Festival on the stage of the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, MA. Previews begin July 7, with the opening set for July 9 and the final performance on July 16.

Rehearsal clip!

As the rehearsals progress, we were able to snag this snippet of a rehearsal that gives a peek at the choreography and overall concept, though with just the rehearsal piano, street clothes and work lights. You have to imagine the final product, but this behind the scenes view is tempting, isn’t it.

Actor James Barry seen here in "Bloody, Bloody, Andrew Jackson."

Tommy is a powerful totem from an earlier age, its music and message still able to reduce an audience to tears, or make them cringe during its unfolding, and then raise the crowd to their feet with cheers as it ends.But the cheers and tears do not come automatically. Eric Hill who will direct the Berkshire Theatre Festival production has signed on for what could be his greatest challenge ever. Even with a long history of complex undertakings behind him, Hill has his work cut out for him. Tommy is as much about the music as it is the story. And it never stops moving. This is one musical that has to be done “right” to work, with split second timing, relentless energy…so difficult in fact that few theatre companies have undertaken it in recent years. It’s real risky.

Tommy not only requires perfection in its musical elements (to gloss over them is to risk disaster), but the acting can not take a back seat for even one moment. For that, much of the weight falls on the person who plays the title role, and the actors who play his younger self. Finally the production itself is Dickensonian in its scope, for this is one sweeping, epic tale. Those who were born after its earlier incarnations have quite a theatrical tsunami to look forward to.

The casting is exciting. It includes both Randy Harrison who will play Tommy, and James Barry as Captain Walker. James Barry is fresh from the cast of Bloody, Bloody, Andrew Jackson, and has been seen in The Caretaker and The Einstein Project at the Berkshire Theatre Festival.

Tommy becomes a Pinball Wizard.

In 1968, Pete Townshend told Rolling Stone he was working on a rock opera about a deaf, dumb, and blind boy. Townshend had rejected psychedelic drugs and discovered mysticism, and wanted to represent different states of consciousness through the story and music. It was only after rock journalist Nic Cohn gave an early version a cool reception that Townshend, knowing Cohn to be a pinball fan, made Tommy a Pinball Wizard. But the plot is much darker than anything you can experience at the local arcade, and varies among the many incarnations of The Who’s eponymous 1969 album. It was played live at Woodstock, and appeared as a ballet, a symphonic recording, a movie, an all-star stage performance, and, in 1993, a Broadway musical.

The original rock opera, The Who’s Tommy is at once a show-stopping rock concert and a cautionary tale of the power and perils of celebrity. We witness Tommy Walker from his birth, through the shocking episodes of his childhood that render him deaf, mute and blind, as he conquers the world with his stardom, and finally after the crowds have turned on him. Featuring legendary songs by the Who, including “Pinball Wizard,” “See Me, Feel Me” and “Tommy, Can You Hear Me?” this promises to be the event of the summer in the Berkshires.

Schedule and Ticketing

Previews are July 7 and 8 with opening night July 9. It plays until July 16 with tickets priced at $49, 40 and 20. Performances are Monday, Tuesday, Thursday-Saturday at 8pm, Wednesday at 7pm, Thursday and Saturday at 2pm. Subscriptions now, otherwise single tickets for all events go on sale March 14 to the general public. For BTF productions (including Tommy) contact the BTF Box Office at (413) 298-5576 or visit www.berkshiretheatre.org to purchase.

About Randy Harrison

When the casting was announced,, perhaps the most excited person was the irrepressible Randy Harrison, who said: “I’m very excited to finally sing on a Berkshire stage, and thrilled and honored to be a part of the first Berkshire Theatre Festival production in the gorgeous Colonial Theater.” And being the consummate professional he is, we have no doubt that he is already committing the music and book to memory.

Randy Harrison

While Berkshire audiences know Harrison for his acting abilities in BTF shows like Equus, Waiting for Godot and One Flew Over the Cukoos Nest, he has earned his stripes in musicals as well. He played in Wicked on Broadway, and has extensive musical theatre experience in regional theatre, most notably playing Andy Warhol in Pop! at Yale Rep in 2009.

“Since I’ve started working in the Berkshires and in western Massachusetts, I feel re-connected to the New England area. It’s always felt like home to me. I still have some family there. My aunt is there. But now I think of it like a summer home, which is kind of nice.” – Randy Harrison

Harrison played the youngest member of the cast in the Showtime series Queer as Folk which is still in syndication worldwide. It brought him to the attention of millions of television viewers and could have typecast him as a heartthrob, but after the series finished, he returned to his first love, the stage, and continued to perfect his craft. On the sunny side of 30, Harrison still can play young, and that combined with his deep experience means that we could be in for a Tommy that will sear its music and characters on our memories. You have to see and feel his character for the show to work.

Harrison in Demand

Always busy, Harrison is working on a new play off Broadway. In between he makes appearances on stage at Joe’s Pub on March 30 and April 27 in “Your Hit Parade” which models itself after the 1950′s tv show which recapped the pop songs of those days. I had a connection with it, working with Virginia Gibson who replaced Dorothy Collins several years into the program’s run. The Joe’s Pub version should be fun since they set up mini-plots to tell the stories built into each song.

The more serious play Harrison is working on is Red Bull Theater’s “In the Raw” workshop of Margaret, A Tyger’s Heart, which explores the role of the French Queen throughout Shakespeare’s history plays, beginning Feb. 25. Michael Sexton directs the work, which is adapted from Shakespeare’s Richard III and Henry VI. Performances are just this weekend at the Theatre at St. Clement’s.

Jenn Harris (l) and Randy Harrison in Jack Ferver's "Swan".

“Swan” Encore

One of Harrison’s projects this past winter was a satire. The first few performances sold out as the actor and his friends had a little fun spoofing the film Black Swan, complete with unhinged ballerinas, lurid hallucinations, tons of makeup and stage blood. Harrison plays the mad mother, with Jack Ferver as Lily, the hot new bad ballet girl in town. The cast also included Christian Coulson (who will be in Dutch Masters at BTF) and Matthew Wilkas. It proved to be catnip for lovers of camp and satire. Performances were at Theatre 80. It is a production of the infamous dancer Jack Ferver and his QWAN (Quality Without a Name) Company. “It is going to be insane,” Ferver said modestly.

It was.

Harrison maintains a busy schedule in his home base of New York, but uses the Berkshires as his summer retreat, thanks to the Berkshire Theatre Festival.

”I want to do Shakespeare. I want to do Chekov. I want to do Beckett. I did Waiting for Godot in the Berkshires. I think it was just a really, really good production. It was a wonderful director, and a wonderful company and people really responded to what we did. I love the play. I love Beckett. I like what I do now.

But I’ll also do a musical every three or four years. I miss singing after a while, so I’m always happy when the time comes and I’m like, ”I think I want to do a musical.” And also, there are more jobs in musicals and they pay better. [Laughs.] So it’s good when you want to do one.” – Randy Harrison

(출처) http://berkshireonstage.com/2011/02/25/randy-harrison-cast-as-tommy-in-the-whos-rock-opera-at-colonial/

[리얼아티스트]

와우 !!!! 저기 랜디 파란 티입고 바지 주머니에 손 넣고 있는 사진 !! 옷 색상과 스타일때문에 방금 수술 끝내고 나온 닥터 같아요 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 존스홉킨스 흉부외과 서젼 포스가 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 의학잡지 표지로 써도 되겠어요 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 키니님 항상 좋은 정보 주셔서 고맙습니다 ! ㅋㅋㅋ

[B.Kinney]

존스홉킨스 흉부외과 서젼 포스 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 파란티 하나로 바로 의사포스 지대로 풍겨주시는 랜디시여~~~ 드뎌 내일 개막하네요 ^^

[정신병동]

꺄울~ 어뜩해어뜩해어뜩해~ 공연 엄청 기대된다~
언니 우리 기도하자. '랜디의 공연을 관람하는 게일 포착!' 요런걸로 인증샷이 올라오길...
둘이 심오한 눈빛으로 대화를 나누고 있는 사진 올라오면 대박!

[B.Kinney]

어뜩해어뜩해어뜩해~공연이 하루 앞으로! 매일을 기도하는 맘으로 살고 있긔!!! 게일의 머리칼 하나라도 봤다는 후기 올라오면 거품물 준비 요이땅했으니 알아서들 하라고 전해줘 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[브저홀릭]

우리의 랜디가, 근데 랜디같지가 않은게 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 암튼지간 공연 대박나길 바라고, 공연 끝나면 엘에이 가서 충전 좀 해요~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

[B.Kinney]

공연 끝나고 엘에이 가면 안되요. 게일은 뱅쿠버에서 곧 촬영 들어가는지라 ㅠㅠ 그냥 게일이 뉴욕에서 공연 관람해주면 안되겠니...쑥스러우면 스캇, 피터 대동하고 예쁘게 다녀오면 충전될 터인디~^^

[브저홀릭]

아 그렇군요 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 뱅쿠버 고고 ㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎㅎ 겔느 어차피 뽀록난거 뉴욕한번 더 갑시다 ~~~~~~~~~~~~오늘도 게랜뽀에버 ㅠㅠ

[littlepill]

키니님~ 또 이런 소중한 정보를~~~ 키니님 덕분에 토미 안봐도 본거 같네요 ㅎㅎㅎ 정보 나르시느라 고생 많으세요~~ 랜디가 이런 우리맘을 알아줄 날이 있겠죠? ㅎㅎㅎㅎ

[B.Kinney]

저 또한 기대도 안했던 연습사진이나 리허설 영상이 올라와서 멀리서나마 공연 관람을 할 수 없는 애타는 심정을 조금이라도 달랬기에 ~^^ 고생이라뇨 절대 네버~!!!!!! 저도 그 생각 합니다. 게랜이 우리맘 알 날이 올까~~하는 ㅠㅠㅠㅠ

[Tiny]

아웅 너무 좋아요 이제 곧 시작될 거라고 생각하니까 너무 두근거려요

[B.Kinney]

Tiny님 드뎌 한국시간으로 내일이네요!!!!! 아~ 떨립니다. 미국에 있었다면 일주일동안 진행되는 콜로니얼극장 앞에서 진치고 생활할듯 한데 그저 눈물만 ㅠㅠ 이루 말로다 표현을 못하겠어요, 이 심정을~올해는 정말 그냥 뉴욕에서 노숙인생을 살았어야 했다는 생각뿐 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ

[Tiny]

그니깐요 드뎌 한국시간으로 내일 아 떨려요 진짜 그 앞에 진치고 있고 싶은데 아웅 정말 너무 떨리네요 진짜 올해는 꼭 미쿡에 있었어야 하는데

[카마로]

영어고자라~~~훑어 내리다가 about Randy 보고 집중해서 읽었어요~~그러다가 파란 브이넥에 헉!!!하고 두번째 swan사진의 검은머리 남자를 연극에서 분장한 랜디인줄 알고....어제 울트라 삽질하고 잠시 자중했어요 ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ흙흙 ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ구글링해봐도 다른 사진은 없고 ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ어쩐지 랜디의 미친 엄마역치고 뭔가 싱크로가 거시기 하다 했더니 ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ절 매우 쳐주세요 ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ

[랜디알라뷰^^]

울랜디 자랑스럽다 자랑스러워 ㅠ 멋쟁이 랜디 앙앙앙