Sedos to Present TICK, TICK...BOOM!

From the writer and composer of Rent, Jonathan Larson's autobiographical tale of a young composer is a musical about the courage it takes to follow your dreams in tick, tick...BOOM!.

"I make a vow right here and now. I'm gonna spend my time this way."

London's premiere amateur theatre company, Sedos, offers the introspective story of a young composer on the brink of turning 30 who feels he is falling into oblivion. Jon's girlfriend Susan wants to get married and move out of the city (tick,), his best friend Michael is making big bucks on Madison Avenue (tick...), and yet Jon himself is still waiting on tables and trying to write the great American musical (BOOM!).

"tick, tick...BOOM! started as a rock monologue called 30/90," says director Fran Rafferty, when asked what drew her to the lesser known musical of Jonathan Larson's oeuvre. "He wrote it as a passionate response to the bitter disappointment he felt over his lack of success in the pre-Rent years."

This was 1990-91, the year after his futuristic rock musical, Superbia, won the Richard Rodgers Production Award and the Richard Rodgers Development Grant but failed to secure full development, and well before he started to write Rent, the Tony-Award winning musical that would make him posthumously famous and inspire a generation of Rentheads.

"After Larson's truly untimely death," Rafferty continues, "a brilliant mixture of talent came together
to transform his monologue into a staged musical. David Auburn, Stephen Oremus and Scott Schwartz expanded the autobiographical thread to find a rich melting pot of characters and recognisable themes for those of us teetering on brink of oblivion and expectation."

To address the show's challenges, Rafferty has chosen her inspiration carefully. "I'm a big fan of directors such as Michael Mayer and Thea Sharrock. Mayer challenges his audience to forget the literal and embrace the abstract while eschewing pretention. And Sharrock directs with tremendous pace. That's not to say her productions rush! Rather, the characters benefit from the immediacy of the pace. The challenge with tick, tick...BOOM! lies in the abstract. We must ensure the songs come of emotions reaching a point where the only way to communicate them is through music."

"I really hope audiences feel they've gone on a musical journey with Larson's characters when they leave the theatre," Rafferty says.

tick, tick...BOOM! is a perfect show for Sedos. The society is known for taking on the challenges of darker, character-driven musical theatre, with acclaimed productions of Kiss of the Spider Woman, A Man of No Importance and this autumn's Man of La Mancha as prime examples.

Fourteen songs, multiple characters, and a band, tick, tick...BOOM! embraces the universal ideal of holding onto your dreams through life's most difficult challenges.

Don't miss your chance to see a rarely produced musical that was Winner of the Outer Critics Circle award for Best off-Broadway musical in 2001.

Sedos presents

tick, tick... BOOM!

Book, music and lyrics by Jonathan Larson,
Bridewell Theatre, Bride Lane, Fleet Street, London EC4Y 8EQ

15-19 September 2015

Tuesday 15-Friday 18 September at 8pm, Saturday 19 September at 3pm and 7pm

Box office: sedos.co.uk (no booking fee)

Tickets: £16 (concessions £13.50) unless otherwise stated, see below for special performances.

A limited number of premium seats are available for £18 (£15.50). Premium tickets guarantee you a seat in the best rows in the house. Note they are unreserved within the premium block.

Buy 10 tickets and get a 10% discount. Cash only on the door.

Charity Night, Wednesday 16 September

50% of the proceeds donated to Sedos's nominated Charity of the Year, Cardboard Citizens.

Gala Performance, Friday 18 September

Audience members receive a free glass of fizz and programme. Tickets £20 (concessions £17.50). Premiums £22 or £19.50.

Cast

Jon: Robert J. Stanex Susan: Abigail Francis Michael: Chris Warner Karessa: Laura Bird

With
Kimberly Barker Thomas Chesover Sasha Herst
Joe Penny

Director: Fran Rafferty
Producer and set designer: Becky Chisholm Musical director: Ryan Macaulay
Costume supervisor: Deborah Lean Marketing officer: Kaytie Lee
Stage manager: Tracie Laurinaitis

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