Tick, Tick... Boom
I went to see Tick, Tick... Boom today. In Birmingham. Alabama has Tick, Tick... Boom. Before I went I said I might die of happiness in the theatre.
Whoa. I was right to say I might just melt into a film on the floor of the theatre. That was amazing. A lot of it's just thinking about the period and how the story turned out, but it was an excellent production to boot. If anyone cares (and doesn't know) TTB is a recreation of a one man show that Jonathan Larson performed himself shortly before beginning RENT, when he became frustrated that no one would produce his musicals. The story is about Jon's scraping-by existence, his best friend (Michael), and his girlfriend (Susan). After he died, his friends turned the one man show into a three person show, and Tick, Tick... Boom was born. One of the major emotional beats of the show is when
Michael tells Jon that he's HIV+, and that was one piece of the show where truth and art coalesced to create an achingly moving scene.
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Jon vents career frustrations to Michael, explodes with his plans to quit the theatre and do something practical. The confrontation ends when Michael says, "I'm sick, and I'm not getting better."
The actor playing Jon staggers manically around the stage finally landing at the piano which has sat front and center throughout the play but hasn't been used (the real band is in the background). While the band sits in silence, the actor accompanies himself in a song that traces his two decade-long friendship with Michael and his equally long love affair with the American musical. "Hey, what a way to spend the day/ I made a vow/ I wonder now/ Am I cut out to spend my time this way?/ With only so much time to spend/ Don't want to waste the time I've given." Until he's sang himself out of disillusionment and back to his dream.
The next day, to Michael, "Man. I'm sorry, I didn't know. ...I'll be there for you."
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And sixteen years later it's socio-political-historical human elation that Michael (whose name is actually Matthew) is ALIVE. He's here, he's breathing, he's in the RENT documentary, and I can only imagine how often he sits back and is stunned by that.
The artistic decision to make that song just a man and his piano. Staring at him and listening to him and hearing audience members sniffling and thinking this is where RENT started; this specific point in time is what made it possible, and even if the Great-Man theory is wrong and individuals don't turn history, at least some leave their mark when the stars align. It felt like it took an hour to sit and listen to that one song, art slowed down time.
I thought I would be okay, this dreamy feeling in my chest that not everyone who was sick is dead and Jon has made his mark/ shook up a generation/ wrote a song (more than 40 of them) that people listen to and remember, and then that last exchange left my voice quavering as I called Theresa after the show. His promise was broken. Jonathan won't be there when Matt dies. And while no one is advocating the dead swapping spots with the living, it's a searing underscore to the uncertainty of the time anyone has, "no day but today", and how much we lost in the death of a man who made his name putting the loss of a whole generation of artists to music.
It all seemed to perfectly encapsulate my personal view of the genius of Larson, his relation to history. Like a war correspondent, he painted the picture of a tragedy, made it accessible, and though he never lived to see the battlefield and sit back after the smoke had cleared (he died a year before new drugs helped death rates plummet), people who did say he got the depiction right. Whatever the aesthetic quality of his work, he is special because he was so on and beautiful and vibrant and enduring in the midst of chaos.
Whoa. I was right to say I might just melt into a film on the floor of the theatre. That was amazing. A lot of it's just thinking about the period and how the story turned out, but it was an excellent production to boot. If anyone cares (and doesn't know) TTB is a recreation of a one man show that Jonathan Larson performed himself shortly before beginning RENT, when he became frustrated that no one would produce his musicals. The story is about Jon's scraping-by existence, his best friend (Michael), and his girlfriend (Susan). After he died, his friends turned the one man show into a three person show, and Tick, Tick... Boom was born. One of the major emotional beats of the show is when
Michael tells Jon that he's HIV+, and that was one piece of the show where truth and art coalesced to create an achingly moving scene.
___________________________________________________-
Jon vents career frustrations to Michael, explodes with his plans to quit the theatre and do something practical. The confrontation ends when Michael says, "I'm sick, and I'm not getting better."
The actor playing Jon staggers manically around the stage finally landing at the piano which has sat front and center throughout the play but hasn't been used (the real band is in the background). While the band sits in silence, the actor accompanies himself in a song that traces his two decade-long friendship with Michael and his equally long love affair with the American musical. "Hey, what a way to spend the day/ I made a vow/ I wonder now/ Am I cut out to spend my time this way?/ With only so much time to spend/ Don't want to waste the time I've given." Until he's sang himself out of disillusionment and back to his dream.
The next day, to Michael, "Man. I'm sorry, I didn't know. ...I'll be there for you."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
And sixteen years later it's socio-political-historical human elation that Michael (whose name is actually Matthew) is ALIVE. He's here, he's breathing, he's in the RENT documentary, and I can only imagine how often he sits back and is stunned by that.
The artistic decision to make that song just a man and his piano. Staring at him and listening to him and hearing audience members sniffling and thinking this is where RENT started; this specific point in time is what made it possible, and even if the Great-Man theory is wrong and individuals don't turn history, at least some leave their mark when the stars align. It felt like it took an hour to sit and listen to that one song, art slowed down time.
I thought I would be okay, this dreamy feeling in my chest that not everyone who was sick is dead and Jon has made his mark/ shook up a generation/ wrote a song (more than 40 of them) that people listen to and remember, and then that last exchange left my voice quavering as I called Theresa after the show. His promise was broken. Jonathan won't be there when Matt dies. And while no one is advocating the dead swapping spots with the living, it's a searing underscore to the uncertainty of the time anyone has, "no day but today", and how much we lost in the death of a man who made his name putting the loss of a whole generation of artists to music.
It all seemed to perfectly encapsulate my personal view of the genius of Larson, his relation to history. Like a war correspondent, he painted the picture of a tragedy, made it accessible, and though he never lived to see the battlefield and sit back after the smoke had cleared (he died a year before new drugs helped death rates plummet), people who did say he got the depiction right. Whatever the aesthetic quality of his work, he is special because he was so on and beautiful and vibrant and enduring in the midst of chaos.