That Jonathan Larson did not live to see the great success of Rent on
Broadway and throughout the world is one of the real tragedies of modern
theater. That audiences can now meet Jon though his autobiographical Tick,
Tick…Boom! (playing at the Coronet Theatre) is a marvelous bit of unexpected
good fortune.

Larson wrote Tick, Tick…Boom! as a one person show when things were not
going to well for him. Superbia, which he had devoted his creative life to for
over six years had had a workshop production which led only to: "Let us know
when your next project is completed." Six plus years…for that?

After Larson’s untimely death just days before his 36th birthday and after the
international success of Rent, Larson’s family agreed to make Tick, Tick…Boom!
into a fully staged musical, with three actors, one as Jon, the other two playing
various characters in Jon’s life, most significantly Jon’s gay best friend Michael
and Jon’s girlfriend Susan.

It is this 90 minute one act auto-bio-musical that Angelinos can now savor in a
sensational new production, magnificently directed by Scott Schwartz, and
featuring star-in-the-making Andrew Samonsky, gay icon Wilson Cruz, and
musical theater treasure Tami Tappan Damiano.

The cast couldn’t be better! Samonsky IS Andrew, having honed his dynamic
performance in an earlier run at the Rubicon in Ventura (which has been
pretty much transferred intact to the Coronet). Tall, lanky, handsome (but not
in a pretty boy way), and with a big beautiful voice to match, Samonsky gives
one of the season’s absolute finest performances. Cruz likewise does award-
worthy work as Michael. In the same way that teenage Cruz brought gay
teen Ricky to such unforgettable life in TV’s My So Called Life, so does Cruz
create a fully-rounded Michael…and he is a fine singer to boot. (He also gets
to play Jon’s father, which is a real hoot!) Damiano, arguably our finest musical
theater leading lady, is perfection as Susan. Damiano has a likeability quotient
that can’t be faked, and in her "green green dress" she is "hot hot hot." Then
there’s that one of a kind Tami voice which could sing the phone book and still
get an ovation. Her Come to your Senses is a power ballad highlight of the
evening. (And she gets to have fun playing Jon’s chain-smoking agent and
even once she plays his father…just like Cruz.)

Fans of Rent will certainly recognize Larson’s signature sound in numbers like
30/90, Sugar, and Louder than Words, and his loving parody of Sondheim’s
Sunday is almost worth the price of admission. Musical director Brent Crayon
and his four-piece band fill the house with Larson’s gorgeous rock melodies.

Choreography by Christopher Gattelli, set and costume design by David
Farley, lighting design by Jeremy Pivnick, and sound design by Drew Dalzell are
all first rate.

Tick, Tick…Boom!’s arrival just as the national tour of Rent comes to the
Pantages is certainly propitious. Fans of Jonathan Larson’s work are most
definitely in for a treat, especially as they meet and fall in love with Jon, the
man, in this truly memorable tribute to what was, and what might have been.
JULY 2006, CORONET THEATRE, LOS ANGELES.

--Steven Stanley