By STU CLAMPITT
news@readthereporter.com
Most theater fans know Rent, which is staging in Carmel this month. But in the beginning, there was Tick, tick … Boom!
Carmel Community Players (CCP) are staging Jonathan Larson’s first musical, Tick, tick…Boom! from Oct. 14 through Oct. 23 at The Switch Theatre, 10026 E. 126th St., Fishers.
The Reporter spoke to Director Kathleen Clarke Horrigan about the story, the author, and CCP’s production of this early work which has recently become a Netflix movie.
“Jonathan Larson, the composer of Rent, was going through a time in his life where he wasn’t making any money and he was working in a restaurant,” Horrigan told The Reporter. “He wrote a one-man show. He played all the parts in the show that we are doing.”
The script went through a rewrite after Larson’s death, expanding the cast, but it still contains all his original musical numbers.
“The premise is in 1990 he was turning 30 years old and having an identity crisis,” Horrigan said. “For a lot of people, when you turn a certain age, do you settle? Do you say, ‘I’m going to go for my dream or am I going to stay in this job that I’m in that is just making me money and helping me survive? A lot of people, I think, give up their dreams. Larson’s best friend was moving up the corporate ladder. A woman he was dating wanted to get married and move away from New York. Here he is 30 years old and working as a waiter and hoping he can write the great American musical. He has to make a decision. It’s his 30th birthday. His parents are pressuring him. Everybody is giving him pressure.”
According to Horrigan, if you want to know the story before Rent, you may want to come see this.
Tick, tick…Boom! is 90 minutes and will not have an intermission.
“The show it written for three actors, but I have expanded it to seven,” Horrigan said.
In the three-person production, each actor plays different characters. Horrigan told The Reporter she though expanding the cast was a better opportunity for more people to be on stage.
Casting presented some challenges for Horrigan, in part because the main character is playing the role of Jonathan Larson himself.
“The main character is playing Jonathan Larson, a composer, so we needed someone who could play the piano,” Horrigan said. “To find someone who was able to do that was a little bit of a challenge.”
Another challenge in casting this show was that it is not nearly as well-known as Larson’s other work.
“A lot of people are not familiar with the show and think they would rather audition for Rent if they are going to do a Jonathan Larson piece,” Horrigan said. “The caveat is this: it was a movie on Netflix and it was up for several awards. A lot of younger people are familiar with it because of the Netflix production, and they introduced me to it. I teach a musical theater unit in high school and my students said I had to watch this. Once I watched it, I thought, ‘OK. I get it. I understand it.’ It’s about that feeling when you’re turning 30 or 40 or 50. As we get older when we get to that milestone, we all take a check – at least I have – of our life.”
There is some adult language to be aware of when buying tickets and choosing who attend with. Horrigan recommends not bringing young children.
Tick, tick…Boom! is staging Oct. 14 to 23. Go to CarmelPlayers.org or call (317) 815-9387 for tickets.
Photos by Rob Slaven / IndyGhostLight.com