Rhys Owen, Joshua Dowen and Jessica Singer in tick, tick…BOOM! at The Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham
tick, tick…BOOM! continues at The Old Joint Stock Theatre, Birmingham until 30 January.
Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩
The Old Joint Stock Theatre presents a moving and spirited tribute the late Jonathan Larson, with productions of his two best-known musicals, tick, tick…BOOM! and Rent. We caught up with the opening of the former, at the eclectic studio theatre in the heart of Birmingham, which is fast becoming a venue to watch.
Larson’s show follows the autobiographical agonies of a ‘promising’ young writer and composer in New York, dogged by the anxieties his 30th birthday stirs up. Should he be keeping up the struggle in pursuit of art? Or does reality mean joining his best friend in the corporate world, paying the bills and settling down? What happens when his lover wants to settle, but he doesn’t? Somehow, the internal compass is stuck.
The show is timeless, and there’s not a soul under or over 30 who hasn’t felt that panicked mortal dread at some point. The production does a good job of keeping that friction and discomfort going from the offset.
Jon sits at the piano, repeatedly playing out motifs. It’s a shame that the onstage piano is barely actually played, but considering the band is providing perfect accompaniment via video-link from a different room entirely, I think it can be forgiven.
This is a well appointed cast. Following thunderous success in the hallows of Southwark Playhouse’s Dogfight, Joshua Dowen grabs the lead role as Jon, our conflicted protagonist, with both hands. He delivers a refreshing lack of ego in his performance – impressive in a piece so driven by existential angst, and tackles the score with an assured vocal. His comic timing shines in ‘Sunday’, the brazen Sondheim pastiche, and he handles the swerving vehicle of the monologues well.
He’s matched well by the talents of Jessica Singer as Susan. Singer has a striking stage presence, and brings a wistful dignity to the character – though it might have been gratifying to set up a little more warmth in the Susan-Jon relationship – their inevitable troubles come as less of a sorrow in consequence.
Rhys Owen is a delight in all his dry-witted, heartfelt glory as a man choosing security over art, and it is with him that the finest nuance lies. His rendition of ‘Real Life’ is a highlight of the show – not to mention some scene-stealing cameos which bring the house down. However, diction occasionally lets the text slip away.
Adam Lacey’s production is drawn together with an intelligent eye, and a solid collaborative vision. The minimal set is furnished simply by Chris Charles with three futon chairs, doubling as prop-storage, and a piano. The walls are decorated sparsely with seagulls made of manuscript paper. One solitary window stares out at the cityscape. There’s a definite sense of thriftiness, of the frugality of life as a creative in the city.
Risks have definitely paid off here. We watch the action in the traverse, and it is a testament to Anna Foster’s clever choreography that we find no dead space or tennis-match blocking so frequently attached, instead, the sequences weave unexpectedly across the space, with a huge attention to focus and to the landscape of the setting.
There is an irrepressible energy from the cast both internally and physically – the whole piece is like watching theatrical circuit training as they leap over set pieces, each other, the audience, embodying the rocky intensity of the score. Lacey’s quick-paced direction really pays off here, and that internal locomotive drives on relentlessly even beneath the stiller moments, barely stopping for applause. It lags only briefly towards the later parts of the show, but is consciously picked up again.
The chemistry between Owen and Dowen’s characters is touchingly observed, and great fun to watch. The comedy screeches in unexpectedly in a myriad forms: slapstick, impression, wit, observation, and keeps us nicely vulnerable to the sudden curveballs of the story.
Though the intensity throughout is captivating, there are moments of pathos which could be handled a little more gently, but all in all, it’s a highly entertaining show, and a touching tribute to a man who never lived to see his greatest work performed.
Aura Simon
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