Few ages in a person’s life feel as daunting as 29. While the world remains youth-oriented, the idea of reaching 30 means a moment to self-reflect and ask what one has contributed to the world. Much like Jonathan Larsen in his pseudo-autobiographical tick, tick… BOOM!, there is such a self-awareness that those who may have come up short will be stuck in a fervent rush to prove themselves. After all, the road beyond 30 is the path of irrelevance, where a younger and more attractive voice will emerge to take your place. How could Larsen, the wunderkind behind the Broadway smash Rent, ever think to have a career when all he has at 29 is workshops for a show that will never see the light of day?
To Larsen’s credit, he is just as celebratory of his panic as he is critical. In an effort to understand where he stands in the Gen-X zeitgeist of 1990, he finds himself dealing with corporations and a mediocre job. His friends are on an upward trajectory while he struggles to find any passion for living in New York. Even with his admiration for Stephen Sondheim, he can’t help but wonder if this is the path for him. Throughout the snappy one act sprint, the audience gets a character study that’s at times comical and others heart-wrenching as Larsen forgoes self-flagellation in place of criticism that may be devastating, but becomes a silver lining for the artists searching for reason to keep moving.
As is the crux of the production at The Chance Theater. It is in the intimate setting with a small stage that this story fully comes to life. When there’s very little room between the fourth wall and the characters, it makes Larsen’s plight feel more real. The intimacy spikes as the drama turns into asides to the audience. There’s showboating and Twinkies thrown into the crowd in an effort to break free of the artifice and find greater meaning. As the audience laughs, they recognize parts of themselves in a young Larsen as he frustratingly recalls ad execs ignoring his ideas and making sense of his manager’s farfetched demands.
In the lead role is Luc Clopton who captures a perfect blend of optimism with an underlying sense of defeat. His sarcasm and nose-flicking at cultural expectations never gets tiring. His constant spiraling never veers too far into annoyance. The constant returns to small acts of clarity reveals a form of acceptance at his changing position in life – or lack thereof. It’s a role made better by his small supporting cast of Lena Ceja and Mariou Houle who spend the entire show shuffling between playing central characters and the wide array of people that populate Larsen’s imagination. At times they’re more props for Larsen to work out ideas, but what ideas they are. For such a small show with a claustrophobic workspace, they manage to create some ingenious dance numbers.
Additional credit should be given to the stage design. Even on a smaller scale, this show pops with its own Brechtian subtext. As an artist, Larsen is trying to pull back the layers to find some greater truth underneath. While the audience starts with an apartment decked with a piano full of scattered notes, the final stretch sometimes shifts into a barrenness that symbolizes his greatest unraveling. Outside of the comforts of props and vanity is a man in search of a meaningful story. The inventive ways that the backgrounds move creates a powerful metaphor for the larger text and even elevates the point into something more refreshing.
The Chance production has a great understanding of what made Larsen such a compelling figure in theater history. Despite his limited output, of which most newcomers are likely aware of going in, the star-eyed dreamer is a relatable figure that most can recognize. Add in the tragic irony that is his death prior to Rent’s premiere, there is hypertext necessary to fully appreciate tick, tick… BOOM!’s larger messaging. It’s not another story about overcoming failures, but to continue at the expense of life’s many setbacks. It’s a celebration of creativity but also a loving tribute to never giving up. The use of time to ground the story is powerful because of Larsen’s post-script story to what is seen here. For a man who assumed that 30 was the end of his career, there is something even more pressing about it not lasting long beyond that.
As a show, tick, tick… BOOM! is an excellent piece of theater that transcends the potential lionizing of its creator. It has the youthful vigor necessary to make its anxiety-driven humor work and captures the aspirations in ways that go beyond the page. It’s there in the stage work and performances. It’s there in the winks and nods to Larsen’s idols that get name drops. While this is a story about failure, it’s also about realizing that 30 isn’t the end. A Broadway production shouldn’t be the barrier to entry. Sometimes it’s the small lessons that teach us the greater truths. That is what Larsen discovers by the end, which is a pretty good way to start the next decade of your life.
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