The Off Center series, which launched last summer, reprises musicals that were originally done off-Broadway. This production is the best thing I’ve seen at any Encores since I saw the first performance of Chicago that eventually lead to what is now a nearly 18-year run of that Bob Fosse/Kander & Ebb classic.
But this revival of Rent creator Jonathan Larson’s
lesser-known work will also break your heart. As every theater lover knows,
Larson died from a tear in his aorta on the morning of the first preview of Rent,
which would go on to the Tony for Best Musical, a Pulitzer Prize and its own 12-year
run. He was just 35 and seeing tick, tick…boom made me mourn all over again the
loss of his brilliance and the shows that might have been.
Tick, tick boom is a straight-up autobiographical piece
that Larson originally wrote as a one-man cabaret act that he first performed
at the Village Gate. He’s the main
character and the story recounts his struggle to continue working as a composer
as he approaches his 30th birthday.
It's not easy as he watches friends exchange their artistic
dreams for the security of steady paychecks and apartments where the bathtub is
in the bathroom and not the kitchen. The sound effects of the title are the cautionary
vibrations of the time bomb hanging over his head.
Larson stayed the course and Rent, which also borrows
liberally from his experiences as a struggling artist, was the result. Five
years after his death in 1996, playwright David Auburn, himself a Pulitzer
winner for Proof, converted tick, tick…boom into a three-person show that starred
Raul Esparza, Jerry Dixon and Amy Spanger.
I didn’t see that production and I don’t know how much Auburn added but
the script is rife with lines about how little time there is any life. Knowing the tragic brevity of Larson’s makes them all the more poignant.
Which isn’t to say that this show is a downer. Many of the incidents Larson shares—the "are-you-OK"
calls from his parents, the encounters with obnoxious customers at the diner
where he earns his rent money, the oops-did-he-really-say-that exchange he has during an interview for a straight job—are hilarious.
Meanwhile, the songs—from funny numbers like "Sugar," a paean to junk food, and "Sunday," a parody of the Stephen Sondheim song from Sunday in the Park With George; to moving ballads like "Come to Your Senses" and "Why"—are delightful.
Larson wanted to marry the
rock music he loved in his youth to the show music, particularly that by
Sondheim, that he revered. Rent was the consummation of that but he was already
well on his way with tick, tick..boom, and no one has yet to do it better.
The Encores! folks have had the great good sense to cast Lin-Manuel
Miranda to play Larson. Miranda is, of course, the composer and lyricist of In
the Heights, the 2008 Tony winner for Best Musical that joyfully combined the
hip-hop music he loved in his youth with the show music, particularly Larson’s,
that he revered (click here to read an incredibly moving tribute he wrote to his role model).
Miranda isn’t a great singer but he is now just a year shy of the
age Larson was when he died and his identification with Larson mixed with his own
innate charm make his performance a shouldn't-miss-it experience.
But he’s not the only reason to see this production. Auburn’s version of the story calls for an
additional male and female character and here, again, the casting couldn’t be
better.
Leslie Odom, Jr., now probably best known for his TV work on
“Smash” and “Person of Interest,” is excellent as Larson’s best friend who has
given up his dream of being an actor for a career in marketing. He's also amusing in several smaller roles, from Larson's dad to his female agent.
Karen Olivo, the Tony winner for her portrayal of Anita in
the 2009 revival of West Side Story publicly quit the business last year for a teaching gig in Wisconsin. But she's returned to play Larson’s girlfriend, a dancer drifting more into teaching and pressuring him to move out of the city.
The crowd at the Thursday night
performance I attended roared its approval after every number but Olivo’s
plaintive rendition of “Come to Your Senses” almost brought the house down
(click here to read an interview with her).
The production, directed by Oliver Butler, is simply but effectively staged. The usual Encores! orchestra has been
replaced by a tight five-man band. And most of the action takes place on a stage
bare, except for lights, cables and other backstage paraphernalia, as though invoking
Larson’s spirit and those of every other theater artist, successful or not, who
has stuck it out against the odds.
It seems unlikely that this show will transfer. As much as I loved it, tick, tick...boom is probably too slight
and dated to draw a mainstream audience. And if it were
somehow to get a longer run, it’s unlikely it would be with this cast. So, as I said, you should do whatever you can
to get a ticket now.
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