Pete Townshend musical in New York

Pete Townshend's latest stage musical, titled The Boy Who Heard Music, will have its premiere performances on July 13th and 14th in Poughkeepsie, New York at the Powerhouse Theater at Vassar College. The piece, based upon Townshend's online novella of the same name, will feature the story of a mythical rock band named the Glass Household, along with the brooding character Ray High.

The musical is connected thematically to Townshend's other multimedia projects, including Lifehouse and Psychoderelict, in which Ray High first appears.

The show's music will feature new material from Townshend, along with songs featured on the Who's Wire And Glass mini-opera, which was inspired by the novella and included on the band's 2006 album Endless Wire.

The New York Post reported that the project was originally going to be produced for the big screen starring Johnny Depp and directed by Terry Gilliam, before plans fell through. There has been no announcement for additional performances.

Townshend says that although the intellectual aspects of music are important, music's main purpose is to soothe and entertain: "Fashion, ideas, style and politics and all this stuff is okay, but what's the function of music in the modern world? It is to divide up time and give us a brief respite from the troubles of our day."

The Who are on currently on tour in Europe and performed on Tuesday (June 5th) in the Netherlands. They will next perform on Friday night (June 8th) in Antwerp, Belgium.

On this week thirty-seven years ago (June 7th, 1970), the Who performed their rock opera Tommy at New York City's famous Metropolitan Opera.
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