Jonathan Larson's TICK, TICK... BOOM! to Open ICT's 2023 'Embracing The Future' Season

Before there was Rent, there was tick, tick... BOOM!. International City Theatre will open its 2023 "Embracing the Future" season with a pop/rock musical by Jonathan Larson about the courage it takes to follow one's dreams. The director is Kari Hayter, and music director Anthony Zediker helms the live band. tick, tick... BOOM! opens February 17 at ICT's home in the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center, where performances continue through March 5. Two low-priced previews take place on February 15 and February 16.

tick, tick... BOOM! is Larson's funny, moving, autobiographical work about an aspiring composer trying to write the great American musical, even as time and life seem to pass him by. Originally written and performed by Larson as a musical monologue, it was adapted into a three-person musical by playwright David Auburn (Proof) after Larson's death. The result is a revealing look at the man who would go on to posthumously receive three Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for his revolutionary rock musical, Rent.

Jon (Ernesto Figueroa) is an aspiring composer living in SoHo and waiting tables, his first big break on the horizon but always out of reach. His best friend (Phillip J. Lewis) is making big bucks on Madison Avenue, and his girlfriend (Samantha M. Lawrence) wants to get married and move out of the city. But Jon continues to hold fast to his dreams - even as he questions his life choices on the eve of his 30th birthday.

Larson began developing the solo work in 1990, performing at Second Stage Theatre, the Village Gate and New York Theatre Workshop. Auburn's revamped, three-actor version premiered off-Broadway in 2001, winning the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Off-Broadway Musical. Since then, the show has had numerous productions including in London's West End, two off-Broadway revivals, and a U.S. tour. In 2021, it was adapted into a film by playwright Steven Levenson (Dear Evan Hansen) that starred Andrew Garfield and was directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

A brilliant, groundbreaking creator of musical theater, Larson died tragically of an aortic aneurysm on January 25, 1996 - ten days before his 36th birthday and one day before the off-Broadway premiere of Rent at New York Theatre Workshop. A trailblazing rock opera based on La Bohème, Rent would go on to claim the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for Drama as well as the Tony Award for Best Musical. Larson had been the recipient of the 1994 Richard Rodgers Award and twice received the Gilman & Gonzales-Falla Theatre Foundation's Commendation Award. In 1989, he was granted the Stephen Sondheim Award from American Music Theatre Festival, where he contributed to the musical Sitting on the Edge of the Future. In 1988 he won the Richard Rodgers Development Grant for his rock musical Superbia, which received a staged reading at Playwrights Horizons - a key plot point in tick, tick... BOOM!. He composed the score for the musical J.P. Morgan Saves the Nation, which was presented by En Garde Arts in 1995. In addition to scoring and songwriting for Sesame Street, he created music for a number of children's book-cassettes including Steven Spielberg's An American Tail and The Land Before Time. Other film scores include work for Rolling Stone magazine publisher Jann Wenner. He conceived, directed and wrote four original songs for Away We Go!, a musical video for children

Tick, tick... BOOM! features book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson, with vocal arrangements and orchestrations by Stephen Oremus. David Auburn is script consultant. The creative team for the ICT production includes set designer Matt Scarpino, lighting designer Donna Ruzika, costume designer Kim DeShazo, sound designer Dave Mickey, prop designer Patty Briles, and hair and wigs designer Anthony Gagliardi. Casting is by Michael Donovan, CSA and Richie Ferris, CSA. The production stage manager is Donna Parsons. tick, tick... BOOM! is presented through special arrangement with Music Theatre International (MTI). All authorized performance materials are also supplied by MTI. www.mtishows.com.

tick, tick... BOOM! runs Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., February 17 through March 5. Two preview performances take place on Wednesday, Feb. 15 and Thursday, Feb. 16, both at 8 p.m. Tickets are $49 on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays (except February 17, opening night, for which tickets are $55 and include a post show reception), and $52 at Sunday matinees. Low-priced tickets to previews are $37.

International City Theatre is located in the Long Beach Convention & Entertainment Center at 330 East Seaside Way, Long Beach, CA 90802.

For more information and to purchase tickets, call (562) 436-4610 or go to www.InternationalCityTheatre.org.

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