Townshend Gives ‘Tommy’ Thumbs Up : Theater: Former Who rock star and the La Jolla Playhouse have joined for an adaptation of the rock opera.

After many interviews on the subject, one would expect author-composer Pete Townshend and La Jolla Playhouse artistic director Des McAnuff to have little left to say about their current adaptation of Townshend’s 1969 rock opera, “Tommy.” But in a Thursday morning press conference held near Mandell Weiss Theatre, where “Tommy” was to begin that night, both men articulated ideas that bespoke both the depth of the work and the breadth of their commitment to producing the definitive version of it.

To answer one lingering question about the work’s relevance to today’s audience, McAnuff stated that the music in the current production has not been contemporized in an effort to make it more palatable to the MTV generation. But Townshend acknowledged that the opus’ story line has come into focus in a way that makes it extremely topical.

“Tommy” tells the tale of a British boy, born during World War II, who becomes autistic after witnessing his father kill his mother’s lover. In due course, he is tortured by a cousin, molested by an uncle, becomes a pinball wizard, is hailed and eventually rejected as the new Messiah.

As much as anything, Townshend claimed on Thursday, the new production emphasizes the familial sources of the main character’s agonies, but in a way that won’t offend sensibilities made more sensitive by today’s headlines. Characteristically, the former leader of the Who even managed to elicit a laugh while discussing a touchy subject.

“In a naive way, ‘Tommy’ touched on some things when the Who first put it out--sexual abuse, the maltreatment of children by disreputable medical practitioners, the sort of ‘soft’ brutality, if you like, of parents who repress issues when their children are young because they think they’re too young to deal with them. We fell on those issues accidentally,” he said.

In approaching the current adaptation, Townshend continued, he and McAnuff had to remain “conscious of the fact that there are people out there who have had the most awful childhood experiences that they haven’t dealt with properly. We’ve had to be very careful--given the facts that are now available as to what awful things often happen within the bounds of the family--not to exceed the bounds of bad taste. Or good taste, is it? OK, this being rock ‘n’ roll, you have to be careful not to exceed the bounds of bad taste,” he concluded, drawing guffaws from the assemblage of media.

Townshend, dressed in faded denim and speaking softly and thoughtfully, claimed he was inspired to readdress “Tommy’s” central issues by correspondence he has received over 30 years as a major rock figure.

“Real people with real problems (have) experienced--it wouldn’t be too strong to say that in some cases a transfiguration has taken place because rock ‘n’ roll was able to release some of the tensions they felt, as it applied to those (problems),” he said.

“There’s a lot in the papers at the moment about stars . . . (having) had a hard time as children,” he continued. “I didn’t really have a hard time, at all, but as a post-war child, I saw a lot of things that were happening around me, and felt a lot of things that were happening to me, very very acutely. I don’t know if it was a post-war syndrome, or not, but when I sat and watched the first complete preview yesterday, what struck me was that this is a post-war story about the traumas of war and a family adjusting to the post-war years. And (it’s also about) a post-war romance.”

McAnuff said that the Who’s recording of “Tommy” had been “a major influence” on him.

“It was one of the first pieces that convinced me that the music I was listening to as a teen-ager really did have a life in the theater,” said McAnuff, who is directing the current production. “As I listened to the (original) album, on some level a production must have existed somewhere in my head. Now, I think of (the character) Tommy as the Holden Caulfield of a (later) generation. But one of the most important things about ‘Tommy’ is that it can reach a wide spectrum of the public, and not just the theater-going public. We have an opportunity here to get people into the theater who otherwise might not come.”

Townshend opined that the La Jolla Playhouse production is “very alive and very rich.” Not long ago, Townshend had a talk with his mother that clarified a lot of things about his youth, and he related that the Playhouse effort nicely meshes with his own renewed perspective on the opus.

“I feel much more confident in (the play’s) authority,” he said. “I was 22 when I started writing it, and 24 when I finished, and it was dangerous and even a bit pretentious at the time to do something like this within the realm of rock ‘n’ roll. I was very lucky and the Who were very lucky that it worked for us, because not only was it an important step for us artistically, it was also a critical financial breakthrough for a group who up to that point had been known for wearing funny pop art clothes and smashing their guitars.

“Now, I feel like the story is my life brought up to date,” he added a bit wistfully. “I didn’t realize how autobiographical it was, not only of me, but of the other people in the group. It’s a story about the child as the star of the family, in a way, and how, when we bring children up and make them the stars, we play a much more subtle and sometimes a more obvious part in their downfall than we care to face up to. That’s why at this point I always mention, ‘Oprah, I’m ready for you.’ ”

“Tommy” runs through Aug. 9 at Mandell Weiss Theatre, on the La Jolla campus of UCSD. Showtimes are 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 7 p.m. Sundays, with 2 p.m. matinees on Saturdays and Sundays. Call 534-3960.