by Theo Bosanquet.
Sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll may not immediately strike you as obvious themes for a ballet. But then you’ve probably never seen a ballet quite like Quadrophenia.
Based on The Who’s landmark 1973 album, which tells the story of a troubled young man, Jimmy, and his coming-of-age against the backdrop of mods versus rockers violence, it’s a production that promises a fresh look at an era-defining classic.
The seeds of it were sown when musician Rachel Fuller, who’s married to Quadrophenia composer Pete Townshend, wrote an orchestral version for a performance at the Royal Albert Hall back in 2015.
“As soon as I heard it,” says Townshend, speaking from his recording studio, “I thought f—k it, this would make a great ballet.”
He has history with the art form, having been influenced by The Who’s former manager Kit Lambert, whose father Constant was a founder of the Royal Ballet. Townshend was a regular guest in his box at Covent Garden. “I saw a lot of fantastic work and became a big fan of ballet, though I wouldn’t call myself a connoisseur.”
He points out this isn’t the first time the worlds of The Who and classical dance have merged. Their other celebrated rock opera, Tommy, was adapted as a ballet by Les Grands Ballets Canadiens in 1970, long before it became a hit Broadway musical. “I remember thinking back then, ‘this is incredible’,” says Townshend. “So in a way this now feels like closing a circle.”
The task of bringing Quadrophenia to the stage has been overseen by director Rob Ashford, known for his work on major musicals including Shrek and Frozen, and choreographer Paul Roberts, who has collaborated with artists ranging from BalletBoyz to Prince, Katy Perry and Harry Styles.
Roberts has been involved since the project’s inception four years ago. “We were always led by the music,” he says. “It was evident right from the beginning, when we worked on the opening scene ‘The Sea’, that it had the potential to be something special.”
Ashford draws a comparison between Jimmy’s story, which includes his secretive romance with Mod Girl, and Romeo and Juliet, in that it’s “about tribes and finding your group, your gang.” And he finds resonances in the contemporary, online age. “[Today], we find our tribe on social media. It seems now you’re more ‘in ’or ‘out ’than ever before.”
He emphasises how the production, which is the first to be created from scratch at Sadler Wells’ state-of-the-art new facility at East Bank in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, has brought together a creative team from a range of disciplines. Neither he nor Roberts could be described as ballet specialists. “I would love it if people who don’t normally go to dance go and see it and feel it’s for them. And vice-versa, if people who enjoy dance feel like they’ve seen something more.”
Jimmy was played in the 1979 film adaptation by Phil Daniels, in a star-making turn. The ballet features Paris Fitzpatrick, known for his work with Matthew Bourne’s company New Adventures, in the central role. “Dancing is about storytelling through choreography, which obviously is completely married to the music itself,” he says. “So you have to find the conversations within it, and every detail we can find to move the story forward. It’s almost like the music is the script.”
Fitzpatrick has been involved since the first workshop, and Roberts says he quickly identified him as a potential Jimmy. “We tried him in the lead role as a tester, but he instantly had this sense of vulnerability, and a really interesting energy. It’s a beautiful thing that he started as Jimmy on day one.”
Story is a central tenet of the production, Ashford says, echoing Fitzpatrick. “To my mind, ballet means storytelling. It’s lovely when dance makes the audience feel a certain way, but the icing on the cake is to also understand the narrative of it.” Evoking the 60s era, when the action is set, is another. The costumes have been designed by British fashion house Paul Smith while the sets are in the experienced hands of Christopher Oram, who has worked with Ashford on productions including Frozen and The Winter’s Tale.
There are staging challenges, not least the climactic mods and rockers battle in Brighton, and the plentiful appearance of scooters. But the team are confident that they’ve managed to find solutions. “What’s great about it is it’s a living thing – every scene we’ve got under out belt has adjusted our thinking about other things,” says Ashford. “It’s all interconnected, just like a new play.” Roberts adds that, despite its centring of gang conflict, “hope and belief are threaded through the whole production – it’s not just all about grit and anger.”
For Townshend, it’s a valuable opportunity to bring Quadrophenia, which he is also co-producing, to a new generation. “Watching those early workshops, I was struck by the extent to which this is a story about young men, and what they go through. It’s also very much about mental illness, which just wasn’t talked about back then. I hope [this production] will once again raise a conversation about that. But it’s also about art, and music, and spiritual expression.”
He’s also thrilled the production will be visiting locations around the country, including Plymouth, Edinburgh, Southampton and Salford, partly as it reminds him of The Who’s roots as a touring band, when they performed in “pretty much every major UK city”. Is he nervous about the response from rock aficionados? “The Who fans are smart people, they’ll get it, we saw that at the Royal Albert Hall,” he says. “Of course there are people who will say ‘who does Pete Townshend think he is?’, but frankly I don’t give a f—k. I’m 80 years old now and I’ll do what I like.”
Characteristically fighting talk from someone who has always been proud to be an iconoclast. With that in mind, it doesn’t seem a stretch to say that Quadrophenia: A Mod Ballet marks something of a homecoming for an album that was always conceived in an experimental spirit. As Jimmy himself might defiantly put it, “I don’t wanna be the same as everybody else.”
Tickets for Quadrophenia – A Mod Ballet (Wednesday 18 – Saturday 21 June 2025) are on sale at mayflower.org.uk or 02380 711811.
- In Common is not for profit. We rely on donations from readers to keep the site running. Could you help to support us for as little as 25p a week? Please help us to carry on offering independent grass roots media. Visit: https://www.patreon.com/incommonsoton