Fridae

I remember the first time I watched Rent. It was in Sydney, just before I enlisted for National Service. I remember being amazed by the sheer energy of this rock opera, thrilled by the affirmation it gave to the lives of gay and lesbian people - in the end, like a true Broadway queen, I spent the whole of my BMT singing "La Vie Boh�me" and "No Day But Today" in the communal showers.

So I'm truly excited that another musical by the composer Jonathan Larson - who received the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Rent - is coming to Singapore. tick, tick...BOOM! is an autobiographical piece, about a 30-year-old writer of musicals also named Jonathan, as he starts to question whether he's chosen the right path in life as an impoverished artist in New York. As our hero tells us, "I'm a composer. Sorry, a 'promising young composer'... I've been 'promising' for so long I'm afraid I'm starting to break the fucking promise."

This isn't a new musical - Larson died suddenly in 1996, mere hours before the final dress rehearsal of Rent. tick, tick...BOOM! is in fact an earlier work from 1991 that caught the eye of New York theatre professionals rather than the mainstream. And the revival reveals how unjustly neglected it was: the musical boasts a score that Amazon editors call "even poppier than Rent", while Variety Magazine describes it as "wonderfully hilarious... all its songs are priceless gems."

And by a stroke of luck, Singapore will see the show performed by members of the original casts of London and New York. Ng Chin Han, Artistic Director of Fiction Farm Pte Ltd, has invited Christian Campbell to play the lead. Christian's a renowned actor of stage and screen (and the elder brother of Neve Campbell), who last portrayed Jonathan in Tick, Tick, BOOM!'s debut last year at the West End. Joining him are Nicole Snelson from the National Tour of America, who's been called "A combination of Mariah Carey, Donna Summer, Madonna and Bette Midler", and Jerry Dixon from the original 2001 Off-Off-Broadway production, winner of the 2002 Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical.

I caught Christian on his cellphone between stepping out of the New York subway and entering his rehearsal room. One of the first questions I had to ask was how Singapore, always slightly off the Broadway circuit, had had the luck to host such an established cast of musical theatre professionals.

The answer, of course, was good old-fashioned Chinese guan xi (connections in Chinese). "Chin Han is a friend of mine," he explained. "I ran a theatre company in Los Angeles from 1995 on, and he was an actor under me. We kept in contact over the years, and I was impressed by his work in Singapore. When he visited London we discussed this tick, tick, BOOM! project over a drink."

This reporter was sorely tempted to dwell on aspects of the actor's personal life, like his three years as a Canadian naval cadet (an act of rebellion against his family of entertainers), or his private feelings about how as a straight man he's repeatedly typecast as a gay character (as in the cases of the gay romantic comedy Trick and the NBC drama The Book of Daniel). But I resisted - though I did discover his true relationship with his co-star Nicole. She's been his girlfriend since they met aboard on the National Tour of the musical five years ago, so the Singapore run should be a little reunion for the two lovebirds.

Christian also related how the musical's opening in London last year particularly interesting reactions, as the London terrorist bombings had happened just two days before. "Tick, Tick... BOOM! was not necessarily the best title for a show, but it still went out," he remembers. "You can bomb the British but they still go to see the theatre. They're a very steely-nerved people."

He recalls being pleasantly surprised at the audience's reaction to the piece. For the die-hard connoisseurs of musical theatre, he offers these insights: "Rent-heads generally love the show, because you can see Jonathan Larson coming into himself a s a composer. But even those who didn't like Rent enjoy this because it's more along the lines of a classical musical, like a play that happens to have music. It really shows Jonathan's range as a writer."

More strikingly, in spite of gay characters and HIV issues being discussed, the appeal of tick, tick...BOOM! cuts across generations. In fact, according to Christian, "the older generation got it more than the younger generation, because they'd gone through more of the self-examination of what they'd done with their lives." This isn't so surprising, since the very title refers to the hero's mounting anxiety about the time-bomb of his fading youth - the opening number, "30/90", cries out, "Friends are getting fatter/Hairs on your head are getting thinner/Feel like a clean-up batter/On a team that ain't a winner".

"[Jonathan's] much like any person who pursues a life in the creative arts," he notes, considering the character's relationship to himself. "It's a big risk: you're not taking the safe path in your life, not knowing where the next job might be coming from, not having the house and the 2.5 children, not knowing if it's the right decision. But it speaks to all ages, all careers; not just artists. People go up to me after the show and relate their own dreams that they've compromised."

You can see this is going to be one of those musicals you'll be comfortable taking your mother to (she'd probably have suspected something watching The Wedding Banquet - the Musical, which Fiction Farm produced in 2003). tick, tick...BOOM! is a truly universal piece that makes you consider what you've done with your life, whether you've sacrificed too much to follow your dreams or left your dreams behind for the sake of comfort. Plus, we'll be able to rely on this renowned cast to deliver a solid performance of an acclaimed work.

This show is set to be piece that makes you think as much as it makes you tap your toes. I'm looking forward to buying the CD - and doing a lot more singing in the shower.

tick, tick�BOOM! Singapore Details:
Produced by Fiction Farm
Date: 4 - 8 October 2006
Time: 8pm, Matinees (7 & 8 Oct at 3pm)
Venue: Victoria Theatre
Tickets: $100, $90, $80, and $65
Available at all SISTIC outlets, www.sistic,com.sg, or call hotline 6348 5555. HSBC Premier Mastercard and Visa Platinum exclusive: 20% off extended till 10 September, 15% off applies thereafter.