In 2001 a second musical by Jonathan Larson played Off-Broadway, with a semi-autobiographical book - Tick, tick…BOOM! A story of a composer who is in search of the way that would take him to the top of the Olympus of the music world. The musical was produced several times Off-Broadway and Off-West End, toured the US. It received the Outer Critics Circle Award (2002) as the “Best Off-Broadway Musical”. Dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the musical, Lin-Manuel Miranda directed the feature film Tick, tick…BOOM!, where Andrew Garfield starred as Jonathan Larson.
A new wonderful production of the musical Tick, tick…BOOM! is coming to The New Ohio Theatre in New York on February 23-26 2023, produced by the Forager Theatre Company. Directed by Jennie Hughes, featuring Alex Parrish, Iris Rodrigo, William Bailey.
While the script and score remain the same as the original TICK, TICK…BOOM! Forager’s goal is to use every production element to fully bring the audience into Jonathan’s world of SoHo in 1990. Forager is staging the show in-the-round and semi-immersive as if the audience members are guests hanging out at Jonathan’s birthday party, and Jon is telling everyone the wild story of his last week before turning 30.
Why does the story of the talented young composer and his two musicals continue to live on, directed by various wonderful directors on various stages? The answer is obvious: this is a musical, which raises the burning and relevant issues, where the characters learn who they are or acknowledge the choices they had to make in their youth to reach the top, while never giving up on their dreams and being bold. The music and lyrics are so melodic, while telling of the relevant issues of the modern society.
It seems that Jonathan Larson sensed the inexorable ticking of the time and was in a hurry to prove to himself and everyone around by a certain age that he was a talented composer, dramatist, librettist, and in general – a Big Artist! Tick, tick – the remaining seconds of his life were ticking. BOOM! – an explosion, which ended the run of the second hand. It is symbolic, that a time bomb went off inside his own body – aortic aneurism. He dreamt that an explosion would become an impetuous ascent towards the station “self-fulfilling talent”, and it turned into his ticket to Eternity.
Tickets:
here.
