The Magazine of St Aloysius' College • 'Men for Others' • Issue XLVII ...

Nicholas Plummer, Harry Power and Michael Curtin in the courtroom scene. Tobias Douglas as The Hawker with Young Tommy (Daniel Verschuer).
at the (now demolished) Regent Cinema in George Street,
it marked a breakthrough in cinema sound technology,
being originally released with a high-fidelity “Quintaphonic”
(five track) soundtrack. Five banks of speakers and concertpower
amplification were installed in the cinema and it was
an impressive (and very loud) experience for the audience.
(Nowadays Pete Townsend himself is partly deaf, not
surprising when you consider The Who’s concerts have
been monitored at 125 decibels).
Tommy had never been produced as a fully staged
musical production until it premiered in London’s West End
in 1979. It only ran for four months and lay dormant again
until it re-opened on Broadway at the St. James Theatre in
April 1993. By then it was a fully realised stage musical
and again I was fortunate enough to see it in 1994. It
made a great impression on me with its now very powerful
story, multi-media design and that still great rock sound
– Tommy had finally become a Rock Opera.
In staging Tommy at St Aloysius’ College, I decided,
apart from some modifications to the script, to re-set the
action to Australia and move the time-frame forward to
the time of the Vietnam War through the 1970s – the time
of The Who themselves. In its final incarnation, Tommy is
indeed a complex piece of theatre. It is many things to its
many fans around the world but at the core it carries a clear
anti-drug statement and a sage warning from the 1970s
against false prophets.
Mr Peter Gough
Director
The process of producing a full-scale musical is long
and complex and commences at least eighteen months
before the actual season opens. Once the decision had
been taken to stage a particular work, the performance
rights to the show were sought and obtained from the
Australian holders of the international copyright. A position
was then negotiated in the complex school calendar for
2008. It was decided to stage the season in mid May to
accommodate the many demands of the SAC co-curricular
program and the availability of the Great Hall. Auditions
were held in November of 2007, with a number of our
sister schools being invited to become involved. Some
wonderful principal singers and dancers were discovered in
this process as well as a large, enthusiastic chorus of boys
and girls. The schools which collaborated in the project
were Loreto Kirribilli, Loreto Normanhurst, Monte Sant’
Angelo College, Wenona School and Ravenswood School
For Girls. The final cast, crew and band numbered in
excess of 120 students. Rehearsals commenced in February
2008 for chorus and principals.
With the new 2008 school year, the preparations
continued with the auditioning of the eight piece band
which was comprised of a mixture of students and staff. A
production team of staff, ex-students and talented parents was
convened early in the year to begin planning for the myriad
details associated with any major musical production. It
was decided at the outset to create as professional-looking
and sounding show as the budget would allow. Early in
the process, key professional designers were contracted
to develop the set design, lighting and sound plans.
“Volunteers” were called for from staff and parents and the
final production team thus created turned out to be one of
the finest groups of professionals we could hope for.
The Production Team
Property Manager
Mr Andrew Baxter
St Aloysius’ College
Michael Curtin as Uncle Ernie.
St Aloysius’ College
A Jesuit School for Boys _ Founded 1879 aloysiad / page 33