Review: TICK, TICK… BOOM! at Queen's Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre

Reviewed by Ewart Shaw, Wednesday 28TH June 2023.

Following their highly successful season of Jonathan Larson’s Rent, The Lot Theatre returns to the Queen’s Theatre with tick, tick… BOOM!. It’s a tight and highly professional production, with outstanding performances that hold your attention for the ninety minutes or so of the show.

It’s a theatrically effective adaptation by David Auburn, credited as script consultant, of a solo show by Larson who died in 1996, not of AIDS, as was popularly believed, but of an aortic aneurism. His death, just before the premiere of Rent, cast, as they say, a pall over the opening.

Auburn added two characters. Michael is Jon’s best friend since they were eight-year-olds at summer camp. Michael abandoned the arts to become a successful executive. He’s gay and HIV positive. Susan is Jon’s lover, a dancer, who wants to leave New York for Cape Cod. She will leave Jon, impatient of his lack of success. These two take on extra small parts in passing.

Just as he weakens, just as he gives up, he receives a phone message. His great hero, a lyricist, and composer, whose name Jon is too scared even to speak, was at the workshop. He loved ‘Superbia’, predicts a great future for Jon, and invites him to talk. It’s Stephen Sondheim. Jon’s path is secure. It’s a great piece of wish fulfilment. One of the highlights of the score is an affectionate parody of Sunday in the Park with George, relocated to a diner at brunch.

Benjamin Maio Mackay directs with the help of choreographer Nina Richards, and takes the lead role of Jon. He held the same dual role in Rent last year. Tate Simpson, from the Rent cast, is Susan. She is elegant and entirely convincing in the role. Liam Edwards is Michael and his story is particularly moving. He has the expensive suits, the BMW, and the suave apartment. He’s dying. They all sing superbly and move easily on the simple set, designed by Matt Ralph.

Kelly-Anne Kimber leads her small ensemble expertly from the keyboard: Jason Ellbourne, guitar, Matthew Rumley, bass, and Jack Barton, drums. There were a few balance issues and a flubbed lighting cue or two but, overall, the professionalism of the show was outstanding.

The musical that Jon is working on in tick, tick… BOOM! is a science fiction futuristic ‘Superbia’. Various drafts can be found, and I’d put money on someone somewhere attempting to cash in on Larson’s name.

In one scene Michael has Jon invited to a brainstorming session at the agency where he works. The product under review is a cooking oil that isn’t absorbed by the body. Unable to cope with the situation, Jon invents the name ‘chubstitute’, and leaves. The actual product is Olestra, still used in some food preparation, but which fell from favour after rumours that it caused what is coyly referred to as anal leakage.

 

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