It’s life affirming to own multiple accessories! Even if you don’t have the exact shade of lime-green stilettos to match your green, green dress. (Which has neither the 20 buttons nor the strap!) You know what else is life-affirming? Good, obscure-ish musical theatre at affordable prices! It renews the hope and faith in the theatrical world as we know it. If you want to feel life-affirmed, State Theater of Havre de Grace has got you covered with their production of Tick, Tick, BOOM! aka Jonathan Laron’s ‘first draft’ of Rent. That’s a little industry humor. Tick, Tick, BOOM! is in fact a stand-alone musical, and it was the pre-Rent show that is the biopic musical (before biopic musicals were a thing… you know back in the 90’s when this notion of hybrid rock-opera-style musicals thought they were breaking the mold even though Andrew Lloyd Webber had done it decades prior?) It’s a three-person show, with some of the area’s most impressive talent and spearheaded by Director Austin Barnes (NPH ain’t got nothing on this kid) it’s definitely a must-see.
Aesthetically, the stage is awash in this subtle layer of filthy 90’s grunge. You get that grimy sense of ‘Bohemian living’ in New York City in the 1990’s from Set Designer Jared Noe. The black-outlined cutout of the NYC city skyline that skims over the ‘roof’ is a nice touch and the fact that Noe takes the time to make a two-tiered set for the scenes when Jon ‘escapes’ up to the roof is impressive. (It could just as easily be staged on one level where the character ‘walks off’ and appears elsewhere on the same level…I’ve seen it done that way…it’s not nearly as effective as what Noe’s crafted here.) Costume Designer Marta Noe gets a nod of applause by way of her distinguishing selections for Jon, Michael, and Susan. Michael has the crisp, pressed look of a businessman, Jon looks like a Bohemian Bum and Susan looks flashy and fabulous in her green, green dress (also without 20 buttons and no strap.) If there’s an aesthetical complaint to be had about the production it’s the overwhelming, intense, over-the-top lighting design by Patrick Yarrington. There are definitely moments when the lighting could have benefited from the “less is more” approach. This is particularly true during the brunch sequence of “Sunday”, the dueling-phone-call session of “Therapy”, and really anytime that those blinding lights start rolling into and around the house. Yarrington must have had ALW’s Joseph on the brain. Though there is a really beautiful moment during “Real Life” where the lights start out as a pulsing blue, course through purple, and surge to red, showing the transition of emotions from fear and confusion to anger and frustration.
Conceptually, director Austin Barnes plays the show as written, straight forward, telling the story of this musical-theatre-writing-hopeful. If you had to dissect the show like a book report, the principal question that you’d want to answer would be: “What if everything doesn’t go exactly the way you want? What if you turn 30 and nothing has changed?” And the answer is Tick, Tick, BOOM!. Barnes brings three talented singing performers together, working with musical director Sam Meros to readily access those complex music and lyrics crafted by Jonathan Larson. Barnes and Meros get strong, emotionally forward performances out of this trio of talent and makes the show have heart and meaning. Tick, Tick, BOOM! by itself is not as impressive a narrative as Rent. (Again, think first draft mode.) And much like [Title of Show] and other hyper-esoteric musicals of this nature, it hasn’t necessarily aged well. While it hasn’t aged poorly— it just sort of— is. But Barnes and Meros find ways, through the music, lyrics, and Barnes’ direction, to make the audience want to have little moments of compassion and empathy for these three people on stage.
As Susan, Bre Lewis is bringing powerhouse vocals to the stage. While “Therapy” becomes this dueling number between her and the Jon character (which almost reads like Chicago’s “They Both Reached For The Gun” in the way that Barnes and Meros orchestrate it), you get a clear sense of her powerful vocal talent during a number called “Come To Your Senses”, wherein Lewis isn’t actually playing Susan anymore, but a character called Karessa, who is part of the show that the Jon character has written/is workshopping, and that number is actually the meta-number from within that show… in this show. Lewis also doubles up as Rosa, Jon’s agent, and she’s hardcore channeling Roz from Monster’s Inc. into those cameo-character moments.
Aloof, detached, but not without vocal capabilities, Daniel Michel takes up the mantle of Michael, Jon’s best friend. It’s difficult to connect with this particular character as Larson has written Michael in such a way that all the things that make you want to empathize with him don’t come out until the show is almost over, which sort of makes the whole character feel superfluous, almost like Larson didn’t quite know if he could pull-off a two-person musical so he added this guy just in case. However, Michel does a fine job of finding little moments of connectivity both with the Jon character and with the audience to keep us from dismissing him as static. When he’s rocking out in that grungy, party-vibe of “No More”, you get this great enthusiasm from Michel that really helps to amp up the experience of that section of the show.
As for the biopic star, Mikey Floyd actually gives us some plumbed emotional depths to consider. Traversing the pathos gauntlet, Floyd finds all of these rich, nuanced ways to bring dynamism to the character, rather than playing him as the whiny, anxious, uncertain hopeful that Larson has penned the character to be. (Not sure what that says about Larson’s reflection of himself, but let’s leave that up to the theological scholars.) Where Floyd truly shines is during the chaotic clashing maelstrom of harmonies and mismatching lyrics that come cascading down over the trio during “Johnny Can’t Decide.” (It has flavors of Rent’s “Christmas Bells” where you’ve got chaotic music, a billion different lyrics flying at you all at once, only every 14th word can be heard, until everyone stops everything and sings at once— “…and it’s beginning to— SNOW!” And somehow, this is exactly that, but with FEWER PEOPLE!) You get to hear his lovely voice topping out over the other two, even if the dervish of lyrics swirls so hard around itself that none of the words are actually articulated. (Larson’s fault.) Balancing melancholy and hope, Floyd delivers an excellent rendition of ‘being Jonathan Larson’ for this production.
Why do we seek out ecstasy in all the wrong places? Especially when we’re seeking it not at a theater? Seek ecstasy and a good, 90-minute-no-intermission musical at State Theater of Havre de Grace. Seek out and see Tick, Tick, BOOM!
Running Time: 90 minutes with no intermission
Tick, Tick, BOOM! plays through September 17th 2023 at The State Theater of Havre de Grace— 325 St. John Street in historic downtown Havre de Grace, MD. Tickets are available at the door or in advance online.
