Robert Hingula was a teenager when he saw his first show on Broadway. It was “The Who’s Tommy” and it made a lasting impression.

So when Hingula, a Kansas City lawyer and a regular performer in area community theatre, learned “Tommy” would be produced at the Jewish Community Center this year he went for it. “I couldn’t let it go by. I had to audition,” he said.

He landed the title role — and so did his 9-year-old daughter, Darcie, who plays Tommy as a 4-year-old boy.

“Tommy” opens at 7:30 tonight in the White Theatre at the Jewish Community Center.

“Tommy is a challenging show. It has a dark side. There’s a lot of adversity and despair but eventual enlightenment with forgiveness and love of family in the end,” he said. “The transformation of Tommy from a catatonic state to an inspirational pinball superstar especially appeals to me.”

Hingula has performed in “Oklahoma,” “The Wedding Singer” and “Aida” at The Theatre in the Park. “Tommy” is his first show at the Jewish Community Center.

Darcie plays the title character when he witnesses a murder that traumatizes him so severely that he’s left blind, deaf and mute.

She is fine being cast as a boy.

“I think it’s cool. Playing a boy doesn’t bother me a bit,” she said. “I like being onstage, especially in a show with my dad.”

Hingula and his family live in Shawnee. He is a 2004 graduate of the University of Kansas law school. Darcie is in the third grade at Clear Creek Elementary.

Chris Gleeson of Kansas City plays Tommy’s father, British Army Capt. Walker.

“It’s a good role, I’m enjoying it,” Gleeson said. “Overall, the show’s message is about persevering through adversity and believing it will get better in the end. I like his father’s determination to help Tommy, his willingness to try anything to bring him out of his catatonic state. Some of what he does may not always be good, but he keeps trying.”

Tommy’s mother is played by Vanessa Harper, who returned home to Prairie Village after her graduation in 2007 from Bucknell University. She previously has performed in “Children of Eden” in 2008 and “The Scarlet Pimpernel” in 2009.

“This is the fourth time I’ve been in ‘Tommy,’ but the first time I’ve had a character role. I was in the ensemble the other times,” Harper said. “Mrs. Walker is an emotional, complex role. I love the show.”