‘tick…tick…BOOM!’ Off Broadway Review: Jonathan Larson’s Musical Portrait

Devotees of Jonathan Larson’s Rent can taste a bittersweet slice of its maker’s too-short life in the intimate musical tick…tick…BOOM!, which is currently revived through Saturday by Encores! at New York City Center. Originally a solo piece that Larson wrote and performed in several variations during the early 1990s, it was sensitively revamped by writer David Auburn and musical arranger/orchestrator Stephen Oremus into a three-actor work that appeared Off Broadway during the 2001-2002 season. Set in 1990, the musical centers on Jon (Lin-Manuel Miranda), a “promising” writer-composer who suffers pre-30th birthday angst over his stalled career. Michael (Leslie Odom, Jr.), his best bud since boyhood, enjoys an enviable career in marketing. Susan (Karen Olivo), Jon’s girlfriend, wants to quit Manhattan for an easier existence in New England.