All Dazzling Scope and Shouting Soul

It’s the brave company that takes on “The Who’s Tommy,” a high-risk piece of theater if ever there was one. This Brit-band’s fantastical “rock opera” of 1969 was never intended for the stage, but was writ large for Broadway production 25 years later. At heart, it’s nothing more than a few dozen music-video scenes accompanied by brilliant late-1960s rock songs, all shakily stitched together by a plot involving vague themes of Eastern-mystic-inspired self-discovery and a blind, deaf and dumb kid who plays pinball. The problem at hand: How to translate this semi-psychedelic, deliriously over-the-top carnival of a show for a small stage in a lovingly restored theater whose ornate decor evokes Puccini a whole lot more than Pete Townsend? The Berkshire Theater Festival clearly knows the answer: By joyously embracing the dazzling scope of the spectacle’s shouting soul and by pumping up the volume and infusing a talented cast with enough energy to light downtown Pittsfield for a month. The ambitious debut production of western Massachusetts’ landmark theatrical merger may not qualify as great theater, but it sure as hell won’t let you down. Then, expecting “theater” from a rock opera — the bastard child of days-gone-by rock composers grown weary of writing whole albums of disconnected songs — is akin to expecting Shakespearean sonnets from Samuel Beckett. Rock music begs for anarchy; opera begs for 16th-century theatrical conformity. If rock opera were a viable theater hybrid, The Kinks’ “Preservation” would have been on the aging-yuppie dinner-theater circuit for decades. And no matter how poignant Townsend’s well-known story (boy witnessing murder of mom’s boyfriend in mirror is struck blind, deaf and dumb; boy later recovers senses when mom smashes the mirror, for starters), anyone looking for deep meaning on Tommy’s loopily-lit stage is on a fool’s errand. And that’s where director Eric Hill has followed the right artistic cues. He lets the comic-book elements have their say in this show, with requisite blinking lights and fantastic costumes, while avoiding the over-the-top burlesque of Ken Russell’s film adaptation. Befitting the rock sensibility of the thing, Hill never lets subtlety, or drama, linger too long. Hill wisely lets the tunes, not the tale, star in this spectacle. The final full-company finale of “We’re Not Gonna Take It” lifts the roof off the staid Colonial Theatre. And it doesn’t hurt to have some vocal power at the center of your stage, and just-boyish-enough Randy Harrison, playing the adult Tommy, more than rises to the occasion. Singing rock-stage songs on theater boards so that the songs actually convey and advance the character ain’t easy, but Harrison pulls it off — if only he’d get his hair out of his eyes. From Jenny Powers and James Barry (Tommy’s parents) down to a compelling, grinning, joyous company, the performances are spot-on from top to bottom, with the exception of Christopher Gurr who takes Uncle Ernie way over the top. And while Angela Robinson’s Acid Queen sings spectacularly, her performance lacks in tones of, um, being on acid. Then, I suppose Robinson happily missed out on the actual hallucinogenic journey of the Tommy era. But these are nitpicks. This is a show that will reach out and pull you from your seats. As Townshend wrote: “Come on the amazing journey and learn all you should know.” If you can score a ticket. “The Who’s Tommy,” produced by Berkshire Theatre Festival and presented by the Colonial Theatre, Pittsfield, MA, runs through July 16. For tickets, call 413-298-5576.