THINGS THAT GO BOOM AND JUST RIGHT

It’s impossible to see a production of Jonathan Larson’s Tick, Tick … Boom! without seeing it as a precursor to his Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent. All the elements are there—aspiring creatives living in lower Manhattan squalor, the lethal creep of AIDS, anxiety about “selling out” and abandoning dreams. And of course, there is the added poignancy of the fact that lead character Jon’s sense that he is running out of time as he approaches his 30th birthday was actually the case for Larson, who suddenly died of an aortic aneurysm shortly before he turned 36, and the night before Rent premiered Off-Broadway.

Alan Pires Jr, Vanessa Calantropo, and Johnny Shea

But Rent is the story of a community while Tick, Tick is the story of one man that stands up well on its own. It started in fact as a monologue performed by Larson with a rock band to back him up. Umbrella Stage does a lovely job of presenting that story with Johnny Shea as the struggling Jon. Shea is appealingly natural and earnestly human, tormented by the passage of time and his lack of creative accomplishment in the face of the Bush presidency and what Jon sees as the bleak outlook of the theater world and the world in general in 1990, an outlook reflected in Erik D. Diaz’s dark and appropriately spare scenic design.

Vanessa Calantropo is Jon’s girlfriend Susan as well as multiple other female roles, including very briefly his agent, his mother, and an alluring performer in the musical Jon is workshopping in the course of Tick, Tick.

Anthony Pires Jr. rounds out the cast as Jon’s soon-to-be former roommate Michael, who has abandoned an acting career for a job in marketing that allows him to buy a BMW and move into a luxury apartment—and yet remain unstintingly loyal to his old friend.

There is a lot of delightful and moving music in Tick, Tick … Boom! and Jordan Oczkowski’s musical direction lets it shine. Larson was a great admirer of Stephen Sondheim, and you can hear some of his influence in the complexity of songs like the humorous “Therapy” and the heartfelt “Come to Your Senses”—delivered by Calantropo in a particularly powerful performance—which echoes “Bring in the Clowns” on a thematic level.

Director Ilyse Robbins, known for her choreography as well as her directing, translated numbers like “Green Green Dress,” “Sunday,” and “Sugar” into movement as well as song. It’s a pleasure to see a big man like Pires leaping and dancing with such exquisite grace.

The whole company delivers a soaring and inspiring “Louder Than Words.” (I appreciated that in this production, Jon hits one wrong note as he’s playing the musical fragment from “Happy Birthday” that’s included in “Louder than Words” to highlight Jon’s ambivalence about his birthday.)

Along with the stage band of a keyboard, guitar, drums, and bass, the cast and creative team of this production of Tick, Tick … Boom! fully capture the bittersweet yearning of lost youth and the rebellious spirit of a rock musical.

photos by Jim Sabitus

Tick, Tick … Boom!
The Umbrella Stage Company
Black Box Theater at The Umbrella Arts Center, 40 Stow Street in Concord, MA
90 minutes, no intermission
Thurs and Fri at 7:30; Sat at 8; Sun at 3
ends on November 23, 2025
for tickets, visit Umbrella Arts Center

for more shows, visit Theatre in Boston