Umbrella’s ‘Tick, Tick… Boom!’ chronicles a struggling artist’s ambitions
The show is based on the life of Jonathan Larson, whose most celebrated creation was the musical “Rent.”
Tick, tick …
We’ve all been anxious about time passing.
Maybe we’re approaching a milestone birthday. Or we fear we’ll never achieve the success we dreamed of.
The show “Tick, Tick… Boom!” is based on the life of Jonathan Larson, whose most celebrated creation was the musical “Rent.”
In 1996, “Rent” won several Tony Awards, including Best Musical, and a posthumous Pulitzer Prize in Drama for Larson.
But six years earlier, Larson addressed his life as a struggling composer and playwright in a semi-autobiographical musical, writing and performing “Tick, Tick… Boom!” as a solo act. It was originally produced Off-Broadway in 2001.
Larson was 35 when he died in 1996 from an aortic aneurysm — two weeks before “Rent” opened on Broadway to critical acclaim. He never lived to see the success he had so desperately desired.
A starving artist
Through November 23, The Umbrella Stage Company is presenting the one-act show “Tick, Tick… Boom!” which was expanded to three characters, produced off-Broadway in 2001, and made into a Netflix film directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Ilyse Robbins is the show’s director and choreographer; Johnny Shea plays the lead, Jon; Anthony Pires Jr. has the role of Jon’s friend Michael; and Vanessa Calantropo appears as Susan, Jon’s girlfriend. All are Boston-area residents.
“Tick, Tick… Boom!” illustrates Jon’s grappling with the anxiety he feels as he approaches his 30th birthday, the strain his artistic ambitions put on his personal life when Susan wants to settle down and leave the city, and the disappointment he feels when Michael decides to abandon acting and pursue a corporate job.
The “boom!” symbolizes Jon’s terror that an end to his artistic career is imminent, but it also refers to Jon’s personal fears, including the tragic loss of friends to the AIDS epidemic.
A quintessential starving artist, torn between a desire for security and the pursuit of his dreams, Jon works at various jobs, including waiting tables, while attempting to write “the great American musical.”
He workshops a play titled “Superbia,” which he dreams will propel him to success, but it fails to draw a producer, though he later learns that his idol, Steven Sondheim, was present and praised it.
Robbins calls the play “timeless,” saying it addresses “the stress of turning 30 and feeling like your youth is slipping away” and the “struggles of a brilliant artist.”
‘Slow down and focus’
Pires says the show balances “humor and heartbreak.” It has been relatable for decades, he adds, “because in a world where people are constantly measuring themselves against others, [it] reminds us to slow down and focus on what truly matters — passion, love, and authenticity.”
Robbins, also an actor and teacher, studied communication and theater as an undergraduate at Northwestern University. She earned a certificate in theater from the British American Drama Academy and a master’s in education from Harvard University.
Speaking to the relevance of “Tick, Tick… Boom!” Robbins suggests that one “listen to the lyrics” of a particular musical number: “Why do we follow leaders who never lead? Why does it take catastrophe to start a revolution? Someone tell me why so many people bleed.”
For information on dates, tickets, KidCare performances, dinner-and-a-show nights, and post-show talkbacks, visit theumbrellaarts.org.
