Some productions are just great to see because they give some of the background to an important artist. Such was the case with Albion Productions and Canned Music’s presentation of the musical ‘Tick, Tick…Boom!’ at Kensington’s Fig Tree Theatre.
‘Tick, Tick…Boom’ was an early work by American playwright Jonathon Larson who then went on to create the hit musical of the 1990’s ‘Rent’.
‘Tick, Tick …Boom’ was a semi-autobiographical off-Broadway show which was about what it was like to be a frustrated musical theatre composer. The scenario tells the story of Jon, on the verge of turning thirty and struggling to fulfill his dream of writing a great musical. Jon’s girlfriend Susan wants to get away and move to Cape Cod, whilst his best friend Michael has moved on from his adolescent dreams and is making big money on Wall Street.
The piece was originally a one man show however has since been turned into a three person musical. This current local production was directed by Luke Byrne, in his first main directing role, and starred Gerry Harkins, Erica Willmott and Matthew Withers.
What the piece clearly showed was how determined and hungry to be an artist Larson was. It also seemed to show that Larson had some sort of premonition that his life was only going to be a short one. Tragically, Larson died when he was only 35 years old from an aortic aneurysm, and only hours before his finest work ‘Rent’ premiered off Broadway.
Canned Music productions will be presenting a five night season of ‘Rent’ at the University of New South Wales Roundhouse in early August.