Tick, Tick…Boom! – REVIEW
Image: Sheridan Adams, Finn Alexander, Hugh Sheridan, Elenoa Rokobaro & Hamish Johnston in TICK,TICK...BOOM. Photo: Jeff Busby
Jonathan Larson is better known for his spectacularly successful musical, Rent, and sadly remembered for the fact that he died the night before its premiere performance. In a further twist of the blade of irony, all his life, Larson had wanted nothing else but to be an acclaimed musical theatre composer and he’d received a nod of encouragement from no less than his hero, Stephen Sondheim.
Rent was Larson’s first commercially produced musical, but not his first work. During the 1980s, Larson wrote, repeatedly revised and shopped a musical called Superbia. It was a futuristic piece that he’d originally conceived as a musical version of George Orwell’s 1984, which he had to scrap after the Orwell Estate refused to grant permission. Superbia received several awards and good critical reviews after workshops and raw performances but never quite made it to a mainstage.
By the time Larson gave up on Superbia it was 1989, he was going to turn 30 the following year and he felt like his fuse of opportunity was burning fast. Hence, Tick, Tick…Boom!
Tick, Tick…Boom! is a kind of memoir told from Larson’s perspective. In the week before his 30th birthday, Jon is lamenting his frustrated ambitions, oblivious to the woes of his girlfriend and friends around him.
It was written first as a solo piece, then adapted for three actors.
The current Sydney production by StoreyBoard Entertainment, directed by Tyran Parke, has Hugh Sheridan in the lead role of Jon. It’s a demanding role as he is both narrator and central character and has the lion’s share of songs.
Sheridan does an admirable job, bringing a sweetness, almost naïvety to Jon’s frenetic desperation.
Elenoa Rokobaro is stunning as Jon’s girlfriend, Susan (plus secondary characters). Rokobaro owns the auditorium with her soulful rendition of “Come To Your Senses”.
Finn Alexander plays Jon’s best friend Michael. Michael once wanted to be an actor but cashed in his star-gazing for a high-paying job with an advertising firm. Michael is gay and is HIV positive. Alexander is vivacious with well placed moments of sombreness. He also plays several secondary characters and he and Rokobaro comically share the character of Jon’s eccentric agent.
Sheridan Adams and Hamish Johnston are ensemble/stage hands with a few break out moments of their own.
The cast is very good. The set is stagnant. A large brick wall and minimal abstract metallic props to indicate different locations. It feels like it needs more. Projections, clever, simple props, lighting – something more to support the story which is devoid of much depth. The songs are fun but not powerful enough to carry the musical without the help of some visual stimulus.
Larson wrote Rent soon after Tick, Tick…Boom! as an homage to the friends around him whom he admitted to having neglected while chasing his own dreams. Rent is the better musical for it.
