Theater review | 'Tick, tick' booms with poignant energy
Four out of five stars
Emma Bushnell
Issue date: 10/2/07 Section: Arts
"I'm a composer. Sorry, a 'promising young composer.' I should have kids of my own by now, a career, but instead I've been 'promising' for so long I'm afraid I'm starting to break the f--ing promise."
So begins the New Repertory Theatre's "tick, tick ... BOOM!" directed by Stephen Nachamie, Jonathan Larson's autobiographical precursor to "Rent." The show is about Jon (played by Guy Olivieri), a struggling 29-year-old musical composer living in New York City and working at a diner.
His roommate and best friend, Michael (Brian R. Robinson), was an actor, but he abandoned his passion to become successful in the marketing business. Jon's dancer girlfriend Susan (Aimee Doherty) keeps dropping hints about moving to New England and giving up the starving artist life. The stage is set for Jon's pre-mid-life crisis as he enters his 30th year, still unsuccessful in his dream of reinventing musical theater.
Anyone who has seen "Rent" - and if you haven't, wake up your laptop and visit ticketmaster.com immediately - knows that Larson's music is fun, poignant and eerily relevant to a variety of people. His dialogue, however, is sadly lacking. Such is the case for "tick, tick" as well.
The show opens with a young man dressed in full musician failure regalia (Converse, baseball tee, etc.), seated at an electric keyboard. He begins an angst-ridden, semi-pretentious monologue about his fears of turning 30 in just a few weeks and not yet having revolutionized his craft.
To be fair, the dialogue isn't that terrible, just a bit juvenile. The subject matter lends itself to self-pity. Thankfully, Guy Olivieri as Jon saves the audience from such a performance and instead delivers his lines frankly and matter-of-factly. Olivieri manages to eschew nearly all angst, leaving behind an honest monologue about genuine fears before launching into an energetic full-cast number that both addresses and makes light of his fears: "Turn thirty, 1990/ Boom! You're passé/ What can you do?"
So begins the New Repertory Theatre's "tick, tick ... BOOM!" directed by Stephen Nachamie, Jonathan Larson's autobiographical precursor to "Rent." The show is about Jon (played by Guy Olivieri), a struggling 29-year-old musical composer living in New York City and working at a diner.
His roommate and best friend, Michael (Brian R. Robinson), was an actor, but he abandoned his passion to become successful in the marketing business. Jon's dancer girlfriend Susan (Aimee Doherty) keeps dropping hints about moving to New England and giving up the starving artist life. The stage is set for Jon's pre-mid-life crisis as he enters his 30th year, still unsuccessful in his dream of reinventing musical theater.
Anyone who has seen "Rent" - and if you haven't, wake up your laptop and visit ticketmaster.com immediately - knows that Larson's music is fun, poignant and eerily relevant to a variety of people. His dialogue, however, is sadly lacking. Such is the case for "tick, tick" as well.
The show opens with a young man dressed in full musician failure regalia (Converse, baseball tee, etc.), seated at an electric keyboard. He begins an angst-ridden, semi-pretentious monologue about his fears of turning 30 in just a few weeks and not yet having revolutionized his craft.
To be fair, the dialogue isn't that terrible, just a bit juvenile. The subject matter lends itself to self-pity. Thankfully, Guy Olivieri as Jon saves the audience from such a performance and instead delivers his lines frankly and matter-of-factly. Olivieri manages to eschew nearly all angst, leaving behind an honest monologue about genuine fears before launching into an energetic full-cast number that both addresses and makes light of his fears: "Turn thirty, 1990/ Boom! You're passé/ What can you do?"
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
David Sinaiko
posted 10/02/07 @ 11:20 PM EST
Wow! Emma I have to compliment your skills in theater journalism. You are clearly a theater lover with a ton of insight and appreciation for the form. (Continued…)
Post a Comment