On the opening night of his Broadway hit RENT, the struggling artist Jonathan Larson died. After his death multiple versions of the scenes and songs his earlier work tick…tick…Boom were found and reconfigured as a three-actor musical by playwright David Auburn and orchestrator/ arranger Stephen Oremus.
Influenced by his mentor, Stephen Sondheim, tick…tick…Boom expands the single monologue concept. tick…tick…Boom is a rock-monologue describing Larson’s dejection at the failure of Superbia, his rock re-telling of 1984.
It is John (Hansel Tan) who brings the greatest strength to this production, pulling out vast energy both through his words and through his intense physicality. As he sees the success of his friends, he manages to get some wit out of rather weak words: ‘the seat is heated’ (of the car), ‘there’s a view of the 59th street bridge’. By the end of the first song, it is clear that this will be a production of the protagonist – the others are pushed to the periphery.
Edward Blagrove and Bonnie Hurst are, nevertheless, strong also. In a moment of a witty parody of an office Hurst is at her strongest and her dramatic quality comes through: it’s a shame that her songs bore me, partly through the fact that Larson can’t really draw out the dynamism of Sondheim and partly through the clichéd words: ‘it was only me and you’, ‘we’ve replaced care with illusion’. Blagrove with his strength, both of body and of mouth, makes the perfect foil for Tan.
Perhaps, Larson does sometimes get somewhere towards impressing us with originality, but it’s a shame that this only ever seems to give Tan opportunities. It’s autobiographical but it’s maybe too much of a Cartesian biography: others don’t get a look in. Thus, the scene when John walks, alone, through Times Square, considering how he doesn’t want to sell out to Broadway, ‘the Parnassus for the musical theatre world’, is perhaps one of the strongest, reflecting his conflicting desires of fame, but artistic integrity, against his fears for his adequacy.
Staged in a black box with the subtle and sophisticated lighting of Allan Ramsey, the focus will purely be on the actors. This will be great for Tan’s talent and it should be positive for the others. But I’m still concerned that only Tan is able to draw enough out of a work that maybe doesn’t give very much.
This is the last Oxford production by Amy Cooke-Hodgson and Stephen Wiggins, who founded Maple Giant Theatre. Despite the risks of this production, Oxford will surely miss their cutting edge productions, concerts and cabaret evenings!
three stars out of five
