In 1971, Seattle Opera premiered the world’s first rock opera,
Tommy, by The Who (Pete Townshend, John Entwistle, and Keith Moon), at the Moore Theater. “Tommy” was Bette Midler’s only appearance with Seattle Opera. Glynn Ross, Seattle Opera’s founding General Director, asked Director Richard Pearlman and Designer Ronald Chase to transform
Tommy, The Who’s best-selling 1969 album, from concert into opera; according to
The Houston Post’s 5/6/1971 review, the result was “literally stunning in its totally original artistic conception and its enthusiastic performance by a talented young cast.” Norman Durkee, who had previously conducted “Hair” at the Moore Theater, “led a four-piece rock band so authentic that some of its members didn’t even read music, playing not from charts but from memory, a band as responsive to the heat of the moment as the singers onstage,” according to Roger Downey in the 5/11/1994 Seattle Weekly.
Program Cover for Tommy
Tommy tells the story of a traumatized youth (Steve Curry) who retreats into the closed world of the deaf, dumb, and blind. Later, he rejects the phony trappings of success as a rock superstar for the values of nature, love, and peace. © Ken Howard
Designer Ronald Chase and Steve Curry (Tommy) in rehearsal. Seattle Times 5/15/1994: “He [Curry] had a good singing voice and was an excellent actor and dancer. He also had nude scenes; in fact, most of the 17-member cast was nude for the finale.”
© Alan Becker
Bette Midler (photographed here in rehearsal) sang both Tommy’s Mother and the Acid Queen. “She played the Acid Queen with show-stopping ferocity,” Patrick MacDonald remembered in the Seattle Times on 5/15/1994. © Ken Howard
“No one who saw Bette Midler, still trailing underground celebrity as the featured chanteuse of New York’s gay Continental baths...will ever...forget her impact. No one else...burned half so fiercely,” wrote Roger Downey in the 5/11/1994 Seattle Weekly. © Ken Howard
Chesley Uxbridge played Uncle Ernie in Tommy—“transmogrifying,” as remembered by Roger Downey in the 5/11/1994 Seattle Weekly, “from fumbling suburban child molester to psychedelic Dr. John figure.” © Alan Becker
Designer Ronald Chase preparing projection images for Tommy. According to the 5/15/1994 Seattle Times, “The show made imaginative use of film and slides... It would probably look primitive today, but then it was mind-blowing.” © Bob McNeely
Chase prepping images. The Seattle Times (4/27/1971) called Tommy "as complex technically as anything produced for the Seattle stage. An assortment of 16-millimeter and slide projectors, flashing lights, a huge scrim and other screens will be used.” © Alan Becker
Ronald Chase, Steve Curry (Tommy) and ??? at Tommy rehearsal. Chase’s multi-media work transported the audience into Tommy’s world, with “enough symbolism to keep even a dedicated Wagnerian opera buff speculating for weeks." (The Houston Post, 5/6/1971) © Alan Becker
Research suggests that this photo may be Mel Auston, who sang the character of Lover/Hawker in Tommy. (If you have additional information about this image, please leave it in the comments!) © Ken Howard
Teda Bracci as the Roller Derby Champ sang the “Pinball Wizard” sequence. She came to Seattle Opera’s world premiere of Tommy fresh from the Broadway production of Hair. © Ken Howard
George Ramos, Bette Midler, and Deirdre Carlson in Tommy. In the 5/11/1994 Seattle Weekly, Roger Downey remembered how “Midler’s Acid Queen shimmied topless between a rauchily knowing Adam and Eve.” © Ken Howard
