There are very few words not sung but spoken in the rock musical “Tommy,” but three that might be relevant are “Brilliant, wasn’t it?” spoken by a local lad that happens to be part of a larger audience, amazed, while watching Tommy play his first game of pinball in a pool hall. Unfortunately, they are not the three words that could have described the revival of the Peter Townshend and Des McAnuff musical, now playing at The Nederlander Theatre on Broadway. There are several reasons why this current production might have missed the mark, but the most exasperating was a lack of empathy felt for a young child being subjected to numerous traumatic experiences in their formulative years. The psychological damage is made clear when the child becomes deaf, dumb and blind and loses the ability to love or be loved. Another factor could possibly be the choreography by Lorin Latarro, which at times is a distraction, especially when executed when important lyrics should be the focus. The choreography works best when complimenting the non-vocal musical sections or when almost becoming antagonistic. As celebratory as the music may sound at times, this is a sad tale of a traumatized, sexually abused, disturbed child. What has not lost its power and emotion is the unforgettable and remarkable score by Mr. Townshend that has withstood the test of time.

Those unfamiliar with the story may have difficulty piecing it together but the creative team put forth a great effort to clearly tell the story. A woman welder (Alison Luff) meets Captain Walker (Adam Jacobs) during World War Two, they fall in love, get married and Captain Walker is deployed to the front line. The woman is pregnant and gives birth to a baby boy. Officers show up and inform Mrs. Walker that her husband is missing and will not return. After years of grieving Mrs. Walker finds a new lover and unexpectedly after the war has ended Captain Walker returns, discovers the affair and murders the lover in front of his young son Tommy (Olive Ross-Kline at this performance), who is the only witness to the crime. They instruct Tommy to say he saw and heard nothing. Captain Walker is found innocent, but Tommy suffers from the trauma and becomes deaf, blind and dumb. While babysitting, the weird Uncle Ernie (John Ambrosino) sexually abuses Tommy (Reese Levine) who is now ten. Cousin Kevin (Bobby Conte) bullies him and eventually takes him to a pool hall where Tommy (Ali Louis Bourzgui), now a teenager plays his first game of pinball, to the amazement of the crowd. This launches Tommy to stardom as the deaf, dumb and blind kid who becomes a pinball wizard. Mrs. Walker smashes the mirror that Tommy constantly peers into and sees himself at all ages, and this cures him. During one of his appearances a female fan gets injured, and this leads him to give up his celebrity and head back home. There he is met by his completely dysfunctional family who have been the root of his problematic existence.

Those audience members that have come to reminisce about the days when this concept album was the rage will find that this production may diminish the emotional impact originally experienced. The music may still bring you to euphoric highs and heartfelt lows, but the visuals are too explicit, technical or vague to produce any hints of nostalgia. A neon framed pinball machine doesn’t do the trick and the large magical funhouse mirror is overdone and overused for any kind of sentimental connection. The straightforward depiction of a drug addicted prostitute shooting up definitely removes any romantic notion of a mind-altering psychedelic trip originally associated with the Acid Queen. The cast is wonderful but are sold short of any character development or for that matter identity. The creative team has pulled out all the stops to produce a cold, sleek and formulated production.

Mr. McAnuff has modernized this production but while doing so has stripped it of all the sex, drugs, rock and roll mystique of the psychedelic sixties. The lighting design by Amanda Zeive is stark, severe and electric. Sound design by Gareth Owen at times seems bombastic. The kinetic choreography by Ms. Latarro is at its best when seamlessly blending one scene into another but often feels intrusive during vocal numbers. One can only wonder after seeing this current incarnation whether a reconstruction was the right decision. Perhaps Tommy should have been left happy and content seeing, feeling and touching hearts through the music and lyrics of Mr. Townshend, when first introduced in the late sixties. Sometimes things are better left alone.