"We had a big challenge in our small theater," Perseverance Theatre artistic director PJ Paparelli said. "It relies on really inventive staging to tell a story without words and with lyrics. That's why a lot of theaters shy away from Tommy."

"Tommy," starring Rory Stitt and featuring most of the same band that backed him in Perseverance's productions of "Hair" and "Hedwig and The Angry Inch," runs through April 22.

Who guitarist Pete Townshend wrote most of "Tommy," the band's 1969 concept album. Bassist John Entwistle added two songs, and years later claimed he never even listened to the album. That's how sick he was of the endless studio cuts.

The public thought differently, and "Tommy" catapulted the band to an entirely new level of superstardom. "Pinball Wizard," "I'm Free" and "See Me, Feel Me / Listening To You" all eventually climbed into the Top 40.

The story, originally post-World-War I but set in post-World-War II on Broadway, follows Tommy, a young man born to British Army Capt. Walker and his wife. The Captain is thought to have died in war, but returns when Tommy is 7 and discovers that his wife has found a new lover. Enraged, the Captain kills the lover.

Tommy sees the whole thing, but his parents try to convince him he didn't see anything. Confused and traumatized, he falls into a deaf, dumb and blind state. His parents try and cure his soul with the help of the church but ultimately give up. He's left with his cousin Kevin, who tortures him, and his creepy Uncle Ernie, who abuses him.

In the meantime, Tommy discovers pinball as a means to express himself. He becomes an international icon, heralded to the tune of "Pinball Wizard."

"The core of this crazy musical is this really simple story about parents and kids," Paparelli said. "He doesn't know how to trust his parents. He has an uncle who molests him, and he has a cousin who abuses him. And so everyone he should love, he doesn't trust, because they've done all these terrible things to him. He wants to be very independent and thrive off the pain that's created him."

Set designer Jennifer Morrell and the crew built and designed three pinball machines for the play. Lighting designer Jaymi Lee Smith created a black-and-white stage for the early parts of the show to convey Tommy's fragmented impression of his surroundings.

As Tommy rises to stardom, the colors fill in. Costume designer Paul Spadone is back, after working on "Hair" and "Hedwig and the Angry Inch."

Perseverance hoped to produce "Jesus Christ Superstar" this year as part of its season of "epic figures" along with "Hamlet" and "Raven Odyssey." That idea stalled when the theater had difficulties securing the licensing rights to "Superstar" during its current 120-venue, two-year tour.

Paparelli turned to "Tommy" once he was certain the theater could stage a coherent and somewhat financially efficient production.

"A lot of the story is done in dumb-show, where music is playing and action is happening," Paparelli said. "That makes it extremely difficult to stage. You have to set the location by set pieces, furniture, projections, lighting, all kinds of things to try and tell the story."

While "Hair" clocked in at almost three hours, "Tommy" runs about 92 minutes. Act 1 lasts 42 minutes, and Act II takes up 50.

The soundtrack is faithful to the 1993 Tony Award-winning Broadway version, written and produced by Townshend and Des McAnugg.

Those who know the music solely from the original album will hear a few new songs that were added for the 1975 film, plus a track, "I Believe My Own Eyes," that Townshend composed for the Broadway adaptation.

In "Hair," the band was hidden behind the stage, partly because its volume threatened to overpower the cast. Here, the band is raised above the center of the platform and the cast is miked with a new set of wireless head microphones. Betsy Sims runs the sound board, mixing all 21 mikes at once.