BWW Interviews: TICK, TICK...BOOM! Director Damian Sandys

Why TTB and why now?

I first discovered TTB back in 2006 and instantly loved it. I wanted to put on a production of it then but about a week later the Menier announced they were staging it, so that put the brakes on that plan! It slipped out of mind for a while and only came back when i was in discussions with the Union over our choice of show. The moment I thought of it I knew it would work fantastically in the Union and, reading it again, I actually saw so much more in it. I'm actually going to turn 30 in a few months and, there's so much in the show that I can identify with more or recognise in people around me. And, if he were still alive, 2010 would have been Jonathan Larson's 50th birthday so it feels right to have the show on this year.

How did rehearsals go?

Rehearsals went really well - although at a breathtaking speed! With only a cast of three, the work ends up being rather intensive as there's no place to hide for anyone. We've had a fairly gruelling schedule but I'm very pleased with the results. It's very exciting to think that we now have an audience to feed off - and mildly terrifying at the same time! There's so much I enjoy about the rehearsal process, discovering things about the characters or moments that the audience will never actually see, but help us make the right decisions along the way. We've generated a few spin-off stories here!

How would you describe the show to someone who knew nothing about it, or had only heard of Rent?

Tick, Tick...Boom! is a story about turning thirty and starting to question what life has been about so far, and what it holds in the future. Should you abandon your dreams for a more stable life, or does that mean copping out? How far do you go to achieve your dream, and at what expense?

What was your casting process? Did you have a wishlist? It's fair to say your cast probably don't fit the "typical" casting for the show...

I started with the text itself. I have never ever seen any production of the show, or watched any on Youtube or the like, and I wanted to really firm up in my mind how I saw these characters without any influence of "this is how it's always done". Reading the text, it became so clear in my mind that these characters were so real and recognisable to me, and I wanted the casting to reflect this. There's actually nothing in the text itself that means a character MUST look a certain way and I didn't want to be looking for carbon copies of people who have played the roles before. Particularly with small-cast shows, I think they can become very similar after two or three productions if something isn't done to break the mould and so I decided to let the text speak for itself. While it is based around Larson's life, it is not a fixed autobiography - we're never going to have the actual man play Jon, and so I didn't want to literally revolve it around "this is Jonathan Larson's life and everyone must look right according to that". Going on just the text, these characters can look like anything as long as they embody the right characteristics of personality.

The most important thing for me was to find three people who you really believed were a group of friends. I could go on for hours about the process! I know that some people might not instantly agree with the casting choices but I'd urge them to see the show before making up their mind, as the cast are doing a fantastic job in creating these wonderful characters.

With Jon it was really important to me to find someone who could be likeable at the beginning and not be too angsty from the start. It's really difficult for an audience to care about someone if they're too pre-occupied and self-absorbed from the beginning. Jon also has so much narration and conversation with the audience that it's really important to have someone who can connect properly. Ashley [Ashley Campbell] has such a hard job as he's only off-stage for about ten seconds in the entire show, and is responsible for about 90% of the dialogue, but he's doing a marvellous job in holding it all together.

For Susan, I wanted someone who had all the warm qualities that I associate with such a character, and a terrific set of lungs for Come To Your Senses. She also has to have really good comic flair and the ability to play several characters. Leanne [LeAnne Jones] popped into my head and the more I thought about it, the more I really wanted her to play it as it would be such a different character for her than Tracy.

Michael is a really difficult character as he's there all the way through but reveals very little about himself due to his closed-in nature. Again, he needs to play several characters, some of which are quite extreme, and so it was about finding someone who was a fantastic versatile actor, with plenty of heart. I knew of Adam's work [Adam Rhys-Davies] previously and as soon as he read for me, I knew he'd be perfect.

You've had a really busy few months - what's been your favourite thing to work on? What's next for you?

2010 has been very busy actually, which took me a little by surprise! In December I didn't know how this year was going to pan out at all and then all of a sudden things came quick and fast. So far this year I have assisted on the Whatsonstage Awards, done the musical staging for Snappy Title, a cabaret of new musicals, produced The Music Man for my youth theatre, directed an production of Beauty and the Beast and assisted on the national tour of Oklahoma! for UK Productions. I've loved all of them for different reasons but I have to say my favourite has been Oklahoma! It's a wonderful version of the show with a terrific company, and it's nice to have that as a bit of a constant at the moment. I try to pop to them every third venue or so, and miss them all terribly when I'm not with them!

When Tick, Tick...Boom! is over (sob!) I'm going to take a few weeks off and then go into rehearsals for the Edinburgh Festival. This will be my tenth year up there and so I'm looking forward to celebrating my decade! I'm supervising a few shows up there for C theatre, a company that I'm Associate Director for. September is traditionally my month off to rest and recharge, and then I'm just in the process of firming up some stuff for later in the year now...

Tick, Tick...Boom! is running at the Union Theatre.

 

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