Last summer, The Who announced that Quadrophenia, a Mod Ballet, based on their classic 1973 album, would be unveiled in 2025. Now the album's creator Pete Townshend has seen the show's first rehearsal, and is excited about the prospect of sharing it with the world.
"I find it difficult to collaborate," Townshend admits in a new interview with Spain's RockFM. "I find it very difficult looking in the eyes of another musician... On the other hand, of course, I really, really admire the process of collaboration. I admire the process of dance and music. Quadrophenia is currently being turned into a ballet. We had our first rehearsal on Monday. It's gonna be fantastic. But I think one of the things about that is that that kind of degree of collaboration is an exploration of the human body, of dancing. With music, I find myself wanting to stay in my box for a while."
"Quadrophenia is the only Who album that I solely composed and produced and the movie that followed in 1979 launched the careers of some of the finest young actors of the time,” Townshend explained last year when plans for the ballet were revealed. “In 2016, Rachel Fuller [Townshend's wife] agreed to create an orchestral score of the album. When I first heard a demo of this version, without vocals, my first thought was that it would make a powerfully rhythmic and emotionally engaging ballet. Workshopped in 2023, that thought became a reality and I knew we had something that would resonate with new audiences, and also bring joy, as it had in its other iterations for decades. The themes of young people growing up in difficult times are still so relevant. It’s going to be poignant, tender and poetic and epic."
"I’ll be honest and say that when it came to the first workshop of the ballet, I wasn’t expecting much," the guitarist told The Times in March. "Then I saw it: no rock’n’roll bullshit, no drummer whiting out halfway through the show, the original message of the piece embodied by the movement of these young dancers. It meant Quadrophenia had another life."
The ballet has been choreographed by Paul Roberts, who has previously worked on projects as diverse as Harry Styles' video for Treat People With Kindness, the Spice Girls' Spiceworld stadium tour, and the Eurovision Song Contest. Dancer Paris Fitzpatrick will take on the part of lead character Jimmy.
“I was watching Paris and I cried,” Townshend admitted to The Times. “Not because I related to what he was going through but because he captured it so well.”
Quadrophenia: A Mod Ballet dates
May 28 - Jun 01: Plymouth Theatre Royal
Jun 10 - Jun 14: Edinburgh Festival Theatre
Jun 18 - Jun 21: Southampton Mayflower Theatre
Jun 24 - Jul 13: London Sadler’s Wells
Jul 15 - Jul 19: Salford The Lowry
Full details here.
