Review: The Umbrella Stage Company's TICK, TICK...BOOM! Rocks Out with Meaning

Composer, lyricist, and playwright Jonathan Larson first wrote Tick, Tick… Boom! in 1990 as a solo, semi-autobiographical rock monologue, initially entitled “Boho Days,” about the disappointment the then-30-year-old felt after his 1983 musical, “Superbia,” was hamstrung by various problems and failed to receive a full production.

Larson – who died January 25, 1996, at age 35 of an aortic aneurysm, the day before his now iconic musical Rent had its first off-Broadway preview – was posthumously awarded the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and three Tony Awards, including Best Musical. The immense success of Rent sparked interest in Larson's earlier work, leading Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning playwright David Auburn (Proof), as script consultant, to transform Tick, Tick...Boom! into a three-character piece that debuted off-Broadway in 2001, followed by a national tour that played Boston’s Wilbur Theatre in 2003, with Joey McIntyre in the lead.

The oft-produced musical – which Lin Manuel-Miranda adapted for a 2021 Netflix film starring Andrew Garfield – is being given a winningly high-energy production, with many touching moments, by the Umbrella Stage Company at the Umbrella Arts Center in Concord, through November 23.

Under the imaginative direction and choreography of Elliot Norton Award winner Ilyse Robbins, and featuring a trio of terrific actors – Johnny Shea as Jon, Vanessa Calantropo as Susan, and Anthony Pires Jr. as Michael – the production compellingly details Jon’s complicated life, sometimes delayed dreams, and eventual embrace of his chosen career path.

Along the way, Jon struggles to choose between continuing his pursuit of a professional life in musical theater or following his friend and onetime roommate Michael – who’s about to move into a luxe apartment (“No More”) and buy a Mercedes – on a more lucrative corporate career track. He also faces additional pressure from his sweetheart Susan (“Green Green Dress”) who wants to settle down and have a more sedate life on Cape Cod.

Shea wonderfully evokes Jon’s many dimensions, suggesting Larson while leaving room for the character to be not just literal but also representational of anyone evaluating their life choices. The actor has just the right singing voice for the part, too, as evidenced in two songs Larson wrote in tribute to his idol, fellow composer Stephen Sondheim: “Sunday,” a humorous nod to the act-one closer of Sondheim’s Sunday in the Park with George, and “Johnny Can’t Decide,” which finds Jon, Michael, and Susan referring to themselves in the third person, as George did in “Lesson #8” of the Sondheim musical.

Late in the one-act, 100-minute show, Jon gets a telephone message from Sondheim himself, who had been among the few to see “Superbia.” His words of encouragement for Jon make clear that the young artist was poised to have a very bright future.

As he so often is on Boston area stages, and was this spring in Umbrella Stage’s The Spitfire Grill, also directed by Robbins, Pires Jr. is a standout here, not only as the ebullient Michael but also as Jon’s salt-of-the-earth father and, in a hysterically funny cameo, Jon’s agent, Rosa Stevens. Calantropo does fine work as Susan and also in other smaller roles, including the afore-mentioned agent.

Also deserving special mention are music director and keyboardist Jordan Oczkowski, Adam Cahalane on drums, John Sinclair on bass, and guitarist Robert Bekkers. Sound designer Alex Berg, lighting designer Ben Rush, scenic designer Erik Diaz, and Costume Designer Kelly Baker also contribute favorably to the look and feel of the production.