NEW YORK — “The Who’s Tommy” is one bizarre present. By way of head-spinning “whaaaaa?” moments, I’d enterprise that, amongst mainstream musicals, it’s bested solely by “Cats.”In any case, it’s about somewhat boy who shuts out the world round him after a traumatic expertise, someway grows up right into a pinball god and acquires legions of adoring followers within the course of. Tragedy and catharsis expressed via usually surreal tableaux and nice rock songs — it’s a wild experience.Even by the present’s wackadoo requirements, Des McAnuff’s alt-futuristic revival, which simply opened on Broadway after enjoying at Chicago’s Goodman Theater in the summertime, has an off-the-cuff relationship with coherence. Does Tommy change into a cult chief, a proto-influencer, a tyrant, a sufferer or all the above? Does he someway cease growing old in his 20s? My head!However by the point your mind catches up with the inconsistencies, McAnuff’s manufacturing has moved on, carried by one earworm after one other and wall-to-wall (actually) kinetic projections. A story of sensory deprivation instructed via sensory overload makes counterintuitive sense.McAnuff definitely has an intimate reference to the present. He tailored the Who’s 1969 rock opera, “Tommy,” with the band’s chief, Pete Townshend, and directed the musical’s authentic model — which gained 5 of the 11 Tony Awards it was nominated for in 1993.The principle motion kicks off in London in 1945, when 4-year-old Tommy (Cecilia Ann Popp on the efficiency I caught) sees his father, Captain Walker (Adam Jacobs), kill his spouse’s lover (Nathan Lucrezio). Whereas Mrs. Walker (Alison Luff) shrugs off this drama — I suppose that’s what they imply by stiff higher lip — the shock renders the kid “deaf, dumb and blind,” because the 55-year-old lyrics bluntly put it.Years go and we enter the Fifties, when 10-year-old Tommy (Quinten Kusheba on the efficiency I attended) is abused by Uncle Ernie (John Ambrosino) and stricken by Cousin Kevin (Bobby Conte). Reflecting on the occasions is the grownup Tommy, performed by Ali Louis Bourzgui, a heartthrob who cuts a barely aloof, dreamlike presence in a mock turtleneck and balances finesse and energy as a singer.The unique album, and Ken Russell’s movie adaptation from 1975, summoned a model of Townshend’s postwar years that’s concurrently grounded and fantastical. However this “Tommy,” this system informs us, takes place within the “previous, current and future.” When the title character turns into an idol, the present doubles down on a glossy dystopian aesthetic that made me wonder if we had been in a multiverse Britain all alongside. Sarafina Bush’s costumes nod to the rockers and mods of the Fifties and ’60s, however in addition they incorporate neo-fascist army garb. Sometimes, ensemble members put on individuality-denying masks that make them look as if Daft Punk had taken up fencing.The grayscale palette, with splashes of yellow as Tommy’s signature shade, creates an oppressive temper that’s bolstered by Amanda Zieve’s stark lighting, David Korins’s stylized set and Peter Nigrini’s projections.On the similar time, the manufacturing just isn’t as radical as this description might counsel and recycles many inventive selections which have calcified over the many years. Christina Sajous’s “Acid Queen,” as an example, is a tepid model of what Tina Turner served up within the film. (It will be fascinating to see a unique bodily tackle this one quantity, or hear a performer lean extra towards Merry Clayton’s menacing sluggish burn from the London Symphony Orchestra’s 1972 recording of the unique album.)Nonetheless, the songs, which are sometimes bite-size, stay as distinctive as they’ve ever been (which is why “The Who’s Tommy” may also be efficient in a semi-staged format, as evidenced by Josh Rhodes’s manufacturing on the Kennedy Heart 5 years in the past). The rating was very theatrical for a chart-topping rock band within the late ’60s, nevertheless it’s additionally very rock by Broadway requirements, even now. The corporate walks that line, at the very least vocally, higher than the one from 1993, which was extra Broadwayfied, and the orchestra, which is as loud because it must be, performs with a precision that doesn’t forsake vitality and the fun of riffage. What this “Tommy” is preaching is perhaps somewhat murky, however when your entire solid traces as much as face the viewers and belts the “Listening to You” finale, by golly, you consider.The Who’s Tommy, ongoing on the Nederlander Theatre in New York. 2 hours, 10 minutes. tommythemusical.com.