Tommy

Three shows that opened on Broadway within the past three weeks captured the bulk of the Tony Award nominations, announced in New York yesterday. Eleven nominations each went to the musicals "The Who's Tommy" and "Kiss of the Spider Woman," and nine to the epic drama "Angels in America."There were no surprises among these front-runners -- the smash hits of a season fairly slow before their arrival.Although they have little else in common, both of the musicals, coincidentally, had previous incarnations as motion pictures.

It makes perfect sense that a former MTV veejay is starring in "The Who's Tommy", which opened at Kennedy Center last night. Completely aside from Steve Isaacs' fine performance, his casting is appropriate because this stage version of the 1969 British rock-opera recording is theatrical MTV.Besides the usual credits for direction (Des McAnuff), choreography (Wayne Cilento), scenery (John Arnone), etc., the program lists credits for projections, video, special effects and technical supervision, among others.

The 25-year-old woman had known William Thomas Parrish III since they were about 16 and had started seeing him romantically in December after he was released from jail. A couple of months later, Parrish was holding her against her will in a modest brick home owned by his grandfather in Finksburg, according to court documents. By the time she managed to escape, the woman says, Parrish had beaten, burned and assaulted her, gagged her with socks and tattooed her with his name. Parrish was arrested Saturday after authorities searched the house and is facing charges of first- and second-degree assault, false imprisonment, reckless endangerment and malicious destruction of property, police said.

Lincoln Town cars were not very popular political symbols in Dundalk during last year's election, when the one used by Dennis F. Rasmussen helped him lose the Baltimore County executive's job. But that's not why Thomas Toporovich keeps his behind the peeling, painted door of his old garage.Tommy, as the 61-year-old, newly retired secretary for the County Council was called during his 22 years of public employment, figures this Lincoln will be the last car he buys, so he's taking good care of his 1988 "stupid car," as he affectionately calls it.His last one, a 1971 baby blue Lincoln, he called "a poor man's car," because it lasted him 15 years and it cost only $4,500 used.

Tommy Tune would see them in the lobbies of the old grand hotels of Europe, the aristocratic class caught short by the fast-forward of time, as faded as the furniture, as once-elegant and now-tattered as their surroundings."

As he danced on street corners and at kiddie parties throughout South Central Los Angeles outfitted in a Crayola-yellow jumpsuit and a mammoth rainbow Afro wig, his face painted white and adorned with crude drawings of red balloons, Tommy Johnson had no idea he was starting a "movement." Soon, his dance style, a kinetic fusion of pop-locking and buffoonish antics he called "clowning," was picked up by the neighborhood kids. They sexualized it, sped up the gyrations, made the face paint more geometric and called the style "krumping."

Inside Murphy Funeral Home and Florist, in an old, four-columned mansion built on a grassy knoll overlooking the railroad tracks, the body of Spc. Thomas Arthur Foley III lay in a flag-draped coffin. The war in Iraq, which had seemed so far away, came home last Wednesday to Martin, a town of 10,500 in northwest Tennessee. By Friday, the day of the funeral, nearly everyone knew Tommy was back. His widow, Paulette Foley, sat in the row of wooden chairs nearest the casket while their 7-month-old son, Logan, slept on her shoulder.

"I'm a sensation," sings the title character in one of the more than two dozen songs in "The Who's Tommy." But the touring production at the Mechanic Theatre is much less of a sensation than the Broadway production that preceded it.The problem isn't the cast. The talented leads and ensemble, directed by Victoria Bussert, bring vibrancy and enthusiasm to their performances, particularly Michael Seelbach in the title role.Blessed with teen-idol good looks and a strong, pop-flavored singing voice, Seelbach is both youthful and sexy enough to make Tommy an appealing protagonist.

COLLEGE PARK -- When Maryland defensive tackle Deege Galt was hunched over his crutches on the sideline at Byrd Stadium for the 2006 season opener against William and Mary, the pain from his season-ending knee injury was secondary to one overwhelming realization that has stuck with him far longer than the torn ligament. "I was on crutches on the field, sitting out there thinking, `Dang, this is the first game I've ever not played with my brother,'" he said. "The very first game. Ever." For twin Terps Tommy and Deege Galt, whose father, Dwight, is Maryland's longtime director of strength and conditioning, their lives - which began 16 minutes apart March 12, 1987 - have forever been intertwined by family and football.

Remember when you were a kid, and the only good part about having to go to sleep was the fun you'd have while dreaming?It was kind of like your own personal amusement park. There'd be scary moments, sure, but there'd also be things that were way more exciting than anything in your waking life -- awesome places, amazing toys and people unlike any you ever met. Sometimes, in fact, you'd end up in a dream so good you'd be mad that you woke up, because you knew you'd never find your way back to that dream.