Overview
If you're a fan of musical theatre, then you know the name Jonathan Larson, the creator and composer behind smash-hit production Rent. And, you likely know his story, too, with the playwright and lyricist passing away at the age of 35 on the day that that now-huge show premiered its first off-Broadway preview performance, and never seeing the Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning phenomenon that it would become.
Before that, Larson also created another musical called tick, tick…BOOM!; however, it didn't chart the same path. Instead, the semi-autobiographical piece was performed as a solo work before his death, following a character called Jon who worried that he'd made the wrong decision by chasing his dream of becoming a composer. After Larson died, tick, tick…BOOM! was reimagined as a three-actor show, then made its way from off-Broadway to off-West End, as well as West End itself. And, in 2021, it took the leap to the screen, too, courtesy of Netflix — in a film directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and starring Andrew Garfield, the latter turning in an Oscar-nominated performance as Larson.
That's a whole lot of history behind the latest big musical announcement Down Under: that tick, tick…BOOM! will make its Australian mainstage debut in 2023. It'll run two seasons, kicking off at Melbourne's Comedy Theatre from Wednesday, February 1–Sunday, February 5, 2023, then hitting Brisbane's QPAC Playhouse on Saturday, March 4–Sunday, March 5.
If you're wondering about tick, tick…BOOM!'s narrative, the rock musical is set in 1990, with promising young composer Jon as its focus. He's almost 30, living in New York City, and life as an artist isn't turning out as he planned — so he has to decide what to do next.
The production is an ode to theatre and a tribute to New York, too, and has kept proving popular since it premiered in its current format off-Broadway in 2001.
While exactly who'll take to the stage in Australia is yet to be revealed, tick, tick…BOOM!'s upcoming Aussie seasons will be produced by Adrian Storey from StoreyBoard Entertainment (Chess the Musical, Barnum, Follies, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) and directed by Tyran Parke (Chess the Musical, Barnum, Follies, Sunday in the Park with George).
The Australian production doesn't yet have any footage, either, but you can check out the trailer for the Netflix film below:
tick, tick…BOOM! will play Melbourne's Comedy Theatre in February 2023, then Brisbane's QPAC Playhouse in March. For further details and tickets, head to the musical's Australian website.
Top image: Macall Polay / Netflix.