Quadrophenia
Festival Theatre, Edinburgh ***
When Who guitarist Pete Townshend's howl of adolescent rage appeared as a concept album performed by the band in 1973, it not only pegged a narrative of dysfunctional childhood and teen-dream rites of passage onto its creator's auto-destructive urges. Quadrophenia's mix of prog bombast and split personality psycho-babble was a cry for, if not help, then grown-up artistic legitimacy. This all-singing, all-dancing stage version, in which four actors play different aspects of Jimmy, the mixed-up Mod who craves to stand out from the crowd he also wants to be part of, appears similarly fractured.
The adaptation by writer Jeff Young, musical supervisor John O'Hara and director Tom Critchley is a period piece several times over. Townshend's original re-imagining of the frustrated aspiration of young working class males in 1960s Britain is not only filtered through its 1970s excesses - the ghosts of Mod revivals, Brit-Pop and regular musical theatre are all in the mix.
So while the power of the songs, replicated live by a fantastically drilled nine-piece band, overwhelms by force alone, the choreography resembles the saccharine showbiz hoofing of Summer Holiday.
As Jimmy, Ryan O'Donnell carries much of the show with an impressive singing voice and a presence that isn't afraid to be vulnerable.
