Pete Townshend News

More than 30 years after his seminal "Tommy" and "Quadrophenia," The Who's Pete Townshend has written a new rock opera that will be given a test run at a theater festival in New York this weekend.

Townshend, 62, who wrote over 100 songs for the classic British rock band The Who as well "Tommy" in 1969 and "Quadrophenia" in 1973, two pieces that defined a generation of disaffected youth, has written the book, lyrics and music to "The Boy Who Heard Music."

Townshend first wrote the new rock opera as an Internet novella, noting in the foreword that he likes to sketch out his operas in this way to settle the plots and storylines.

"The Boy" is described as "a hallucinatory tale about the rise and fall of a band made up of three teenagers from different ethnic backgrounds as seen through the eyes of an aging rock star."

Musicians and actors will read and sing their way through the two-hour show on Friday night and twice on Saturday at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, which is staging the New York Stage and Films' 23rd Powerhouse Theater festival for developing new work.

Ed Cheetham, producing director for the Powerhouse at Vassar, said they had only planned to put the show on twice but the huge demand for tickets prompted a third production.

Townshend, director Ethan Silverman and the cast were not giving any interviews about the show, believed to include a number of songs from The Who's 2006 album "Endless Wire," and it was uncertain if Towshend would attend.

"It's at the very beginning of its process," said Cheetham. "But when you hear it, you can definitely hear that it is Townshend."