I don't know how I missed this up until now. While perusing the Sundays this morning my attention was drawn to a quite tacky advert for Quadrophenia. Not another dvd release I thought to myself but on closer inspection no, a stage adaptation . . . a fucking stage adaptation!
Growing up during the mod revival, having mates who to this day are still mods at heart, and with the invention of the VCR, I must have seen Quadrophenia at least once a month for about 6 years. So even as a non mod (I was always a bit too scruffy, too much of a punk and couldn't get my head around the modernist tag when effectively they were following the fashions from 2 decades previously) I have a soft spot for Jimmy, Chalky, Ferdy and the others.
Just how the hell do they intend to translate this cult film of my youth to stage? Take the opening scene for example Jimmy travelling along the streets of the big smoke at night on his LI. Just how are they going to convey the buzz that he is on in a theatre? Simple, they aren't. I know that stage adaptations happen all the time and are mostly successful but I just can't for the life of me see how this is going to work. What about the music are they just going to play the cd over the PA, or are they going to get some second rate Who tribute band to perform the soundtrack?
The stage production is sponsored by Lambretta for fuck's sake!
If anybody is seriously thinking of going to see this, do yourself a favour log on to Amazon, Ebay or similar buy the double cd, the original not the soundtrack and the DVD and watch Quadrophenia the way Townshend intended.
What will be next Easy Rider the musical?
The Who - I've Had Enough
3 comments:
I noticed this today too. I still really like the film, and the album is wonderful too. You're spot on here - how are they going to get that immersion in the experience of the group moving so freely? Are we going to have stylised fighting on the beaches?
A story - my Aunt was in Brighton one day, on her way home from visiting a friend, and was lost on her way back to the station, and very concerned about all of the trouble flaring up around her. She ended up spotting a policeman and going and asking for directions and general reassurance. He told her how to get to the station and then said 'actually I'm not a real policeman, and you don't have to worry about all of this, it's just actors - we're making a film'. I always look out for her in those sequences but I haven't spotted her yet.
Brilliant story Adam. A friend of my mother's was an extra in The Wall, at the train station during the Bring The Boys Back Home sequence and for a second she can be seen very clearly. I got very excited about this as a young teenager
Indeed! there is no way that these nostalgic nimcompoops can approach this with any authenticity! I just wish the baby boomers would leave things alone. We're suffering at the hands of a Billy Joel musical revue/revival over here, ugh!
And wonderful stories, guys, xoxoxo
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