Absolutely thrilling.
The emotive, iconic Who 1970s rock opera has found an unlikely but exciting new lease of life thanks to writer Pete Townshend’s collaboration with award-winning choreographer Paul Roberts, Sadler’s Wells and Universal Music.
The—at the time groundbreaking—concept album was released in 1973 in a bid to reengage with the band’s Mod fanbase and became a cult film starring Phil Daniels and Sting in 1979.
Paris Fitzpatrick (Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures, 2024 National Dance Awards’ Outstanding Male Modern Performance-winner) is a poignant and boisterous, multi-faceted Jimmy wrapped in angst and the ubiquitous parka. His mental health struggles are pitched against his search for belonging, the warring Mods and Rockers and burgeoning teenage sexual desire.
Cleverly, his struggles with inner demons are danced to life with the Romantic (Seirian Griffiths), the Hypocrite (Matthew Bourne’s New Adventures’ Will Bozier), the Tough Guy (Curtis Angus) and the Lunatic (local lad Dylan Jones drawing on his parkour expertise) crowding Jimmy’s psyche as cliffhanger decisions are made.
Freelance dance artist Dan Baines is a strutting, charismatic Ace Face, the peroxide Modfather everyone wants to be and who, inevitably, gets the girl (a sexy performance from 2023 Rambert School of Ballet and Contemporary Dance graduate Serena McCall).
Amphetamines (a lithe and frenetic Amaris Gillies) offer some solace, while clubbing and late-night café counter the mundane factory work, but not enough as his disinterested angry father (Stuart Neal), haunted by wartime nightmares, is medicated with beer and TV, while mother (Kate Tydman) is desperate for her husband's attention, leaving Jimmy the cuckoo in the nest but with nowhere to go.
Add a rumble and betrayal in Brighton, tugging at childhood alliances, coupled with a shocking sellout discovery and Jimmy is taken to the absolute (a tad drawn-out) brink.
(The) Paul Smith’s costuming is on point with sharp suits, fur-lined parkas, pencil skirts, filthy jeans and leather jackets, while the inevitable Vespa completes the Mod preciseness and ethos.
YEASTCULTUREORG provides clever projections which seamlessly shift the setting from psychiatrists office to factory immersive seaside with water rippling across the stage, while Christopher Oram’s set design (complete with clever escape hatches) peaks with the nostalgic train packed with commuters and Mods heading to the coast set on fun.
Roberts’s choreography is explosive and high-octane with athleticism and original moves packing the wow factor. Stunning.
And, of course, there is the music. Musical director and Townshend’s wife Rachel Fuller has beautifully orchestrated the original score and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra delivers with gentler nuances and a handful of not-on-the-LP extras.
Inventive and emotional (and exhausting). I’d happily watch / listen again.