tick, tick… BOOM! Review

The New York City Center stage has the distinct appearance of a production load-in greeted by a case of TNT — a fitting aesthetic for Rent composer Jonathan Larson’s lesser-known bio-musical, tick, tick… BOOM!, now playing as part of the Encores! Off-Center series. Crates, wires, and lights are all strewn about the stage like an art project just on the brink of pulling together its stray pieces (the work of scenic designer Donyale Werle). This rough-edged shrapnel is just as abundant in tick, tick… BOOM!‘s performances as it is in its physical space. Yet, these unmanicured, potentially hazardous shards are exactly what give the production its explosive power. tick, tick… BOOM!, which began its life as a solo rock monologue, presents a musicalized Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. The artist in this case is Jonathan Larson, whose revolutionary rock adaptation of La Bohème rose to its current messianic status after Larson’s tragically premature death in 1996. Providentially, this modest precursor, which features an equally memorable score, tackles the very question that came to define Larson’s abbreviated career: What is the best way to spend our days when there is no way of knowing how many we have ahead of us?