Before Rent, Larson went Tick, Tick… BOOM!

Taylor Paliaga and Alex Unikowski, as Susan and Jonathan in Tick, Tick… BOOM! (Photo: Olivia Wenholz)

By Helen Musa

So famous is Jonathan Larson’s musical, Rent, seen at the Canberra Theatre in June, that many people have forgotten it’s not his only work for the stage. 

ACT Hub’s end-of-year production of Tick, Tick… BOOM! will put paid to that view in a Canberra premiere directed by Nikki Fitzgerald, and featuring three top local singers, Taylor Paliaga, Alex Unikowski and Dave Collins, with musical direction by Callum Tolhurst-Close.

It’s a part of Broadway legend now that Larson, on the eve of Rent’s off-Broadway preview, died suddenly from an incorrectly diagnosed aortic dissection. He never knew of his success.

I caught up with director Anderson and actor/singer/keyboard whizkid Unikowski to discuss the show.

Unikowski gets to play, well, Jonathan Larson, for Tick, Tick… BOOM! is plainly autobiographical, a kind of prequel to Rent, as it shows an obsessive, young struggling musical theatre writer, Jonathan, in the process of creation.

It’s early 1990. Jonathan works at a diner in SoHo, NYC, with Freddy and Carolyn, while trying to write a new song for his musical-in-progress, Superbia. 

But he’s about to turn 30 and the clock is ticking in his mind (“Tick, Tick… BOOM!”) as his former roommate Michael and his girlfriend Susan encourage him to get a real job.

Readers won’t know most of the very articulate songs, which have titles such as Johnny Can’t Decide, Therapy, and 30/90, a precursor to his famous counting song, Seasons of Love, which begins “525,600 minutes”.

There’s not much more to it than that on the surface, with a simple set and the three singers at their mics, backed up by a four-piece band, although Unikowski will take to the keyboard, in character.

He confirms that, as the central character Jon, he’s pretty much Larson telling the story of his own struggles and asking the question: “Will I ever make it?”

There are parallels with Rent. HIV is already a theme, as he considers friends such as Freddy, who nearly succumbs to the virus or Michael, played by Collins, who is restricted because he’s gay. 

“It’s a lot about his friendship with people,” Unikowski says.

Larson himself was heterosexual and Taylor plays his girlfriend, Susan, who represents a juxtaposition to the Bohemian life, La Vie Bohème, as his Rent song goes.

Unikowski assures me there is a through-line in the story, which is not just isolated bits, as it tells us about his climb up the ladder. There are plenty of twists and turns before – spoiler alert – it becomes clear that Superbia is going nowhere fast and he decides to work on an old project, one that will become Rent.

Jon’s about to turn 30 and, considering the notorious 27 Club, which included Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain, and Amy Winehouse, (who all died at 27) he has good reason to worry so he’s reconsidering his life dream.

Larson actually died at 35, Fitzgerald reminds me and he hadn’t yet made it. 

Unikowski and Fitzgerald aren’t exactly living La Vie Bohème. Unikowski is a public servant who teaches a school choir and performs by night, but says he quite likes the separation of work life and artistic life. 

Fitzgerald, who has been a public servant while spending much of her spare time working backstage for Everyman Theatre, says she’s now thinking of taking stock of her life and would like to do more theatre. 

That’s the kind of decision this show looks at.

Tick, tick… Boom!, ACT Hub, Kingston, December 11-21, 2024

First published at Canberra City News, December 4, 2024