Anyone who knows musical theatre, knows the impact Jonathan Larson and his groundbreaking musical Rent had on the industry. They’ll also know that he never got to see the extent of his own success, suddenly passing away the night before the first preview of that now iconic musical. It is with this hindsight that his lesser known musical tick, tick… Boom! becomes all the more poignant, and this production at the Bridge House Theatre, directed by Guy Retallack doesn’t fail to deliver.
Larson’s tick, tick… Boom! is autobiographical, it’s 1990 and in the week leading up to his thirtieth birthday Jon is questioning his career choices. His friend Michael is living it up with a big city job, while his girlfriend Susan is intent on making a fresh start for herself in New England. Jon, on the other hand is still waiting tables in a diner, desperately hoping someone will spot his talent, and pick up the musical he has sacrificed everything to write.
While it was Rent that made Larson famous, it is the rock musical Superbia which is the focus of tick, tick… Boom! and as Susan hands him a book of blank manuscript paper, and with a poster of La Boheme behind him, we can only imagine that those pages would go on to be filled with the bars of Seasons of Love, even if Larson himself didn’t know it yet.
The Bridge House Theatre is an intimate space, and that makes it all the more wonderful for the audience, who get to be up close to the incredible cast. The space has just enough room for Jon’s sofa and side table, plus a keyboard and guitar, the New York city skyline adorns the walls in chalk outlines. Yet, the city which Jon calls home, comes to life in Phil Lee’s detailed sound design and Richard Williamson’s lighting design.
With a cast of just three (Superbia had too large a cast for Off-Broadway, so perhaps this was forefront in Larson’s mind) there’s some multi-rolling required from James Hume and Georgie Ashford, but in the main they are present as Michael and Susan respectively. Both give admirable performances, Hume’s ‘Real Life’ is particularly moving, while you can’t help wishing Larson had lived long enough to hear Ashford’s rendition of ‘Come To Your Senses’.
But Larson would most likely have been proudest of Alex Lodge, his Jon is everything you could hope for, and more. The sense of desperation to succeed is palpable, as is the anxiety and fear bubbling just under the surface. Lodge’s vocals are astounding, and it often felt like the small theatre was struggling to contain his charming and emotional performance.
Aside from ‘Why’, a tenderly beautiful ballad played on the keyboard by Lodge, the rest of the music comes from Jamie Ross, and it sounds just exactly as a Jonathan Larson score should. The recently released Jonathan Larson Project gave us new insight in to his work, but Ross succeeds in breathing new life in to an established score.
The concept of a struggling artist is nothing new, and is just as relevant today as it was in 1990, probably even more so, at one point in the diner Jon says “everyone we know wants to be something else” and isn’t that the truth in 2019. But we know the struggling artist in tick, tick… Boom! We know the tragedy that proceeded success, and somehow his struggle feels familiar to us all, and this production makes that clearer than ever.
