Tick, Tick…Boom! is an autobiographical musical, telling of Jonathan Larson’s early years, when he has yet to discover the genius that was to be RENT. At this point in time, he is workshopping on his musical Superbia, which just doesn’t want to come together. His 30th birthday is coming up, and he feels as though his life has become this time bomb; for he hasn’t reached the success he had imagined he would by this age. Does he keep trying or should he give up on his dream and move out to the suburbs?

Along with Jonathan (played by Ian Michael Stuart), we meet his roommate and best friend Michael (played by Kevin Cordova) and his girlfriend Susan (played by Andrea Dennison-Laufer), who, like Jonathan can understand both sides of the fence, but have made their decisions in life and have their own opinion as to what Jon should do.

We already know going in which path he decides to take–we have RENT to prove it–regardless,  I was nervous, sitting on the edge of my seat,  mentally encouraging him to keep at it, that he’ll eventually make it.

The problem with Tick, Tick…Boom! is that we do know that he made it. Most who see the musical, probably have seen its more famous, well-known sibling, and one can’t help but compare the two. Tick, Tick…Boom! is to RENT, like Salieri is to Mozart–it has a whole lot of ambition and tries its little heart out to stand out, but once Mozart came along (or RENT) tick, tick, Boom was forever left to stand in it’s shadow. It is a good enough musical of its own, but since we all know what Larson would come to create, unlike its namesake implies, it never truly takes off. There are a few catchy songs, “No More” and “Therapy” being the stand out ones for me, but there were some places that just fell flat. I realize this is a minor detail, but I do have to say that if there is a song called “Green Green Dress”, the actress should be wearing one. Another issue, although it was nice to have the band live and on stage, it did cause problems, drowning out the un-microphoned singers at times.

The Empire Theatre is a small theatre, so it certainly does an impressive job. If you are a Jonathan Larson or RENT fan, you should definitely check out Tick, Tick…Boom! just to see where he got his start. I would like to recommend that you not compare the two, but I don’t think that will be possible, since many of the issues raised in RENT are brought up here as well. My advice is to see this as the starting block for what was to come.

Or in terms of the running joke of Tick, Tick…Boom!: Tick, Tick…Boom! is like Newark Airport–lesser known than JFK, but it came first.

For tickets and and times please visit Theater Out