The Kennedy Center opens the 2024 season of its incomparable Broadway Center Stage series, which has undergone massive changes from it’s inception in 2018 as a “concert” series (of the most elaborate, fleshed out, star-studded concerts one could imagine) to fully staged productions to candidate to meet all the requirements for regional theatre awards (which it should absolutely sweep), to a gateway for Broadway transfers (last season’s superior Spamalot is now in New York and a strong contender for this season’s Best Revival of a Musical). Employing a familiar mix of Broadway, television, and the occasional movie and local theatre names, the series has become the brightest new light in local, regional, and repertory theatre on the east coast.
After many huge scale extravaganzas like the the above mentioned Spamalot, Guys & Dolls, The Music Man, How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, and the brilliant reinterpretation of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s masterpiece Sunset Boulevard starring the inimitable Stephanie J. Block, the series goes the most intimate it has ever staged with Jonathan Larson’s first and final musical, tick…tick…Boom!
The piece has a unique history as he wrote it as a solo performance piece in 1991 (originally called 30/90, then Boho Days before landing on the final title), a semi-autobiographical expression of his doubts about continuing in the theatrical business, after a decade of trying to get his opus Superbia produced to minimal interest, in the face of turning 30, and watching his fellow artist friends sell out to more practical (and lucrative) careers, the struggling artist narrator (Larson on piano with a backup band) wrestles with his will to continue. The piece fell on the back burner while Larson went on to collaborate on another little 90s show called Rent. Sadly, Larson never got to see the success of what he created, as he dropped dead the day before the final preview off-Broadway of aortic dissection. After Larson’s tragic death, his parents gave permission for playwright David Auburn and musical arranger Stephen Oremus to rework the piece into a stage musical, which they devised as a 3 person show, the central character Jon surrounded by his girlfriend Susan and best friend/roommate Michael, who also played other characters.
The Kennedy center works its usual magic by bringing in Neil Patrick Harris to lend his vision as a Larson aficionado (in his director’s notes, he credits Larson’s work as instrumental in reviving his career as a juvenile television actor and opening a new chapter as a stage performer when he was cast as Mark in the national tour of Rent, and later played Jon in the London production of this show). Harris and a dazzling design team take what is effectively a small chamber piece and open it up for the stage with thrilling visual effects, the addition of a 4 person ensemble to play all the peripheral roles and provide background vocals and a fuller sound, and new orchestrations to rock the score to a new level.
There are no mainstream celebrities in this show like usual, but the cast is led by three strong Tony nominees, Brandon Uranowitz (Falsettos) as Jon, Grey Henson (Mean Girls) as Michael, and the exquisite Denée Benton (Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet) as Susan. Kennedy Caughell, Kelvin Moon Loh, Yael “Yaya” Reich, and Nikhil Saboo round out the strong and versatile ensemble quartet.
Uranowitz handles Jon, a new age twist on the neurotic New York Jew trope, with deft comic timing and solid rock vocals. He has the benefit of having his face blown up and broadcast in real time on Paul Tate DePoo III’s versatile set for much of the show that gives the back of the house the front-of-the-house advantage to see the real emotion as he sings Larson’s personally inspired melodies. Uranowitz is a solid center to anchor the enhanced one-man show. He has great chemistry with Benton and especially Henson as his life long best friend, for good or bad. He channels all the joy, anxiety, intensity, elation, and frustration of a struggling artist not only attempting to perfect, find joy, and believe in his creations, but to inspire the same from others also, from backers to audience members to the world out there beyond. He grabs us with the opening number, “30/90” and holds us to the final chords of the show. Of course, we have hindsight to know fate will supercede his insecurities.
Henson, in a significantly less flashy role then he was last seen (as “too gay to function” Damian in the DC premier and Broadway cast of Mean Girls), is no less effective as his best friend since grade school who represents the alternative for Jon. Micheal gave up his artistic dreams years ago and now is an advertising exec making real money with a brand new luxury apartment and flashy car. He presents a pretty polished Faustian offer for Jon to sell his soul and choose money and survival over creativity and passion.
Benton (showing off even more range than her enthralling Tony nominated role of War & Peace’s Natasha in the extravaganza Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812) is stunning and strong as another of his surrounding “sell-outs”—his words, not hers. When she takes a job teaching at a prestigious school, he reprimands her that she was a great dancer. “I’m still a great dancer”, she slaps back. Unlike Jon, she doesn’t need an audience or fan adoration for affirmation. Her soaring voice adapts to many styles, form tender (“Johnny Can’t Decide”), to alluring (“Green Green Dress”) and power rock belt (“Sugar”). Benton is an underutilized talent in New York and the Kennedy Center deserves praise for recognizing that.
Director Neil Patrick Harris, considered by many young fans to be the patron saint of Broadway, does a remarkable job opening up a three-actor rock chamber piece adapted from a one-man “rock monologue” to fill the rafters of the vast Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theatre. He gets enormous assists from series regular Set and Projection Designer Paul Tate DePoo III (a rock star in his own right here), who makes the backdrop scenes literally dissolve into each other, giving it the feel of the Andrew Garfield Netflix movie that most audience members today know the piece from. His background choices are incredibly realistic and sync flawlessly with Lighting Designer Cory Pattak’s always thrilling theatrical lighting for a combined fascinating visual punch.
Harris teams up with Paul McGill, the choreographer from his Tony Award Winning performance in Hedwig & the Angry Inch. It’s no more of a dance show than Rent, but McGill provides all the right, energetic rock concert moves that made Hedwig and Rent rock.
Ben Cohn as Music Director and Conductor gets a phenomenal blend out of his seven member cast as well as rock-the-theatre-down accompaniment from his 5-piece Kennedy Center band, who take great advantage of Stephen Oremus’ new updated and expanded orchestrations and vocal arrangements to make the most impressive incarnation of the show to date.
For those who questioned Harris as a director, his Director’s Notes in the program speak for themselves. In his early 20s, after his career as a juvenile TV star stalled, he found himself “lost and questioning much of my personal and professional life” when he encountered Rent. “As fate would have it”, in 1997, he was cast as Mark in the national tour of Rent, which “changed [his] life”. From there he went on in 2005 to play Jon in the London premiere of this show, and in 2010 he was asked to direct the acclaimed Hollywood Bowl production of Rent. “My exploration of his landmark canon deepened yet again…and now, my journey comes full circle here at the Kennedy Center with this reimagined, expanded production of tick…tick…Boom!“
The piece as it has evolved and re-evolved has hints that indicate the coming of Rent. Some artistic (a guitar riff that sounds like the opening refrain of the show here, vocals that are reminiscent of “What You Own” and “Take Me or Leave Me” there), some intentional (the underlying themes of defending one’s right to make art, the devastation of AIDS infiltrating a circle of close friends), some inspired (the ballad where the company lines up across the stage in pinspots to sing an emotional moment, the walkup residence where they toss the keys down to visitors, the repeated shrill beep of the period answering machine, which was apparently lifted right off the soundtrack). [Sidenote: except one clear and important difference—these folks pay their damn rent. Just want to make that clear.] Harris protects and preserves all these salutes to Larson’s opus, and seems to be on the track in his self-appointed role as guardian of Larson’s all-too-brief legacy. He also cleverly subverts the widely exposed movie looming over him by finding ways to paint pictures equally as large and varied on the Kennedy Center stage. Harris has taken on a side quest in his meteoric career, and for now, he’s the exactly the right person to execute this mission.
Since I first encountered this piece when it toured in the early 2000s, it has always reminded me of one of the most memorable birthday cards I’ve ever seen—on the outside it simply said “Happy 40th Birthday”; on the inside it read “Kinda makes that little breakdown you had at 30 seem a little silly now”. I bought the whole rack and sent them to every friend as they hit that landmark. Those sentiments all came flooding back and I chuckled when Jon is ranting in an opening monologue about how he’s days away from 30 and no longer being youthful. [Get back to me, boy, after a few more decades of broken dreams.] But as Jon vents similar fears in one of his last monologues—having to choose between creativity and survival, compromising one’s dreams, pursuing a dream too long versus giving it up too soon. What happens at 35? ……then it clicked.
Larson died a week before he turned 36, on January 25, 1996, the day before Rent ever saw it’s first audience off-Broadway. Eighteen years later, this production of tick…tick…Boom! coincidentally/cleverly/wisely/brilliantly (choose your adjective) opens on the day after the anniversary of his untimely passing/the anniversary of the day that gave birth to the work that would bring him artistic infamy (choose your direct object). That’s when it all makes sense and the ever-present ticking Jon hears eerily reminds us that Larson had a literal a time bomb inside him (two hospitals missed his condition and misdiagnosed his symptoms as the flu and exhaustion) that eventually exploded and robbed him of the very rewards he feared he’d never receive. And suddenly all the urgency, panic, fear and the dozens of other emotions Harris and Uranowitz take us on a journey with make sense. “No Day But Today”, the anthem of Rent, lingers here too by the end of this short glimpse into Larson’s creative mind when the final chord of the show gives us the “boom!” after all that intense ticking.
While nowhere as grand or impressive as most previous offerings of the Broadway Center Stage series, tick…tick…Boom! is not supposed to be, so don’t let that deter you from seeing it. Harris and the producers work their particular brand of artistic magic on the piece and, if nothing else, I guarantee you’ll never see it or hear it anywhere else performed as perfect as this. You’ve only got a week before your time runs out.
All photos courtesy of Teresa Castracane
Running Time: Approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes with no intermission.
Tick Tick Boom currently plays through February 4, 2024, at the Eisenhower Theatre at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F Street NW, Washington DC 20566. For tickets, call the box office at 202.467.4600 or purchase online