The musical “Tick, Tick . . . Boom!” revolves around an aspiring composer named Jonathan Larson as he tries to launch his career in musical theater amid setbacks, rejections and failure.
“Tick, Tick . . . Boom!” is onstage at Pinch ‘n’ Ouch Theatre three months after a planned concert production of Larson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning show “Rent” with a full cast collapsed amid its own series of setbacks after months of rehearsal. Artistic director Grant McGowen, who directed both shows and stars as Larson in the just-opened “Tick, Tick . . . Boom!,” said he relates to the composer’s ambitions. Some involved in the misbegotten “Rent” production wonder if McGowen needs to be careful about his own.
The show was written in 1990 by actual composer Jonathan Larson as a solo piece about his life. But “Tick, Tick . . . Boom!’s” reputation and stature have rocketed since then because of the inspiration that Larson became after he created “Rent,” which won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and became a Broadway smash in 1996.
Larson’s sudden death on the day before “Rent” was supposed to begin previews meant that he never got to experience his success after years of struggle. And many artists connect with that story, including cast members of Pinch ‘n’ Ouch’s production of “Tick, Tick . . . Boom!,” which continues through April 23.
McGowen said the musical has inspired him since he first saw the 2005 Alliance Theatre production while attending high school in Norcross.
“When I discovered ‘Tick, Tick . . . Boom!,’ that was really moving for me in a lot of ways,” he said. “Because it was about making the decision to be an artist, regardless of how difficult it can be. And I decided to make that decision then and there, to move to New York to study acting and take on this crazy journey.”
McGowen said portraying Larson was a chance to try and understand who the man was as an artist.
“It’s really interesting because that’s another thing I wanted to get to the bottom of, understanding Jonathan’s brain,” he said. “In his mind, what was it to ‘make it’? I think somewhere in the back of our minds, we have expectations for ourselves, and that’s very much what ‘Tick, Tick . . . Boom!’ was about. There was this pressure and anxiety that, ‘I’ve got to get this out.’ A lot of artists feel that way.
“Sometimes art is about the audience, about a movement,” he said. “Other times, it’s about yourself. It’s totally OK to make something for yourself and put it out there because you want to.”
The show also stars Mikaela Holmes and Ian Cole, playing multiple roles.
A New York native new to Atlanta, Holmes primarily plays Jonathan’s girlfriend Susan. The actress calls herself a longtime Renthead who became familiar with “Tick, Tick . . . Boom!” after the Netflix film version premiered in December. This musical is the first time she has been back onstage since the COVID-19 pandemic, and she’s excited.
“Just to be able to experience more of Jonathan’s life, as it is semi-autobiographical, has been interesting,” Holmes said. “With the role that I’m playing, there are serious, heartfelt and emotional moments that hit me. Then, there are a lot of really fun moments when, on a dime, I switch to playing Jonathan’s agent or his mom.”
Pinch ‘n’ Ouch will also be performing Larson’s “Rent” for one night only on May 27 at Variety Playhouse. McGowen, Holmes and Cole will also appear in that cast. They were originally planning to do “Rent” late last year, alongside a full cast.
The scheduling of both “Tick, Tick . . . Boom!” and “Rent” happened this season after McGowen’s plans to mount “Rent” as a concert at different large venues in December fell through after months of planning amid licensing issues and logistics concerns.
Credit: Nigel Marson
Credit: Nigel Marson
At different points, McGowen was in discussion with Callanwolde Fine Art Center and then Pullman Yard to stage a concert version of “Rent” around Christmas Eve. A full cast had been hired and began rehearsals in October.
Kevin Harry, a veteran musical theater actor who had performed “Rent” before, was set to play the college professor Collins in the production and was excited at the prospect of presenting the show. But he said the rehearsal process at Pinch ‘n’ Ouch was abnormal.
Harry said that, typically in productions, licensing, venues for staging and technical crew members have been secured before the actors arrive. Also, a rehearsal schedule is put into place before rehearsals begin. Then, actors show up at rehearsals to get the script, learn the parts and put things into production. With “Rent,” this wasn’t the case.
“This was the most unconventional thing I’ve ever experienced,” Harry said. “I think we bought into the ‘Little Engine That Could,’ one-man-operation vibe, so we bypassed a little bit.”
The Suzi Bass Award-winning performer said McGowen had cast many first-time actors and rock musicians in the planned show, so the inexperienced cast would not have been as aware of the way musicals are normally staged.
Harry and Hannah Zale, who was to play Maureen, noted that there were many red flags about the planned “Rent” show.
“It would change each day, who the band member was who could actually attend,” Harry said. “We quickly surmised they were learning the material in the exact same fashion as we were, along the way, which made rehearsals rather frustrating because we couldn’t go through entire songs.”
Harry and Zale said the cast was never provided librettos, and they rehearsed from a PDF scan, often singing along to karaoke tracks and older soundtrack recordings from an Apple Music playlist on their phones. At one point, McGowen wanted to change the order of the show’s songs for the concert, putting its most famous song, “Seasons of Love,” last.
“I would kill myself to get all the way in town because I live in North Fulton,” Zale said. “I would leave my job, take my dog with me because he’d been crated at day, and I would eat dinner at rehearsal in a place where we are singing to Spotify recordings of the cast without microphones or anything. All of us were looking around like, This isn’t a rehearsal.”
Changing the location and the number of performances affected McGowen’s rights to stage “Rent.” McGowen said that Callanwolde had arranged with the show’s publisher, Musical Theatre International, for it to be performed at the arts center. When contacted by ArtsATL, Callanwolde staff denied that they had ever secured a contract with MTI, though they did confirm that they had discussions with McGowen about Pinch ‘n’ Ouch presenting the show there.
McGowen provided ArtsATL a scan of his company’s contract to perform the show at Pullman Yard, dated Oct. 13. But McGowen said a show there proved logistically impossible.
“I dropped out of the Pullman,” McGowen said. “The reason for that was that it was very cold. There was an issue about heating the space for that many people and bringing in bathrooms. For technical reasons, we realized it was much smarter to work in a venue that already had that. Also, staffing on Christmas Eve was tricky. We realized it was a better deal to go with Variety (Playhouse).”
Harry said he joined a meeting between McGowen and Pullman Yard executives in October where, in a tent at the venue, the facility managers asked extensive questions about the plan to staff and market the Christmas Eve show, which McGowen was unable to adequately answer. Harry said that meeting prompted the move.
McGowen said he alerted MTI to revise the contract to fit the new dates and location, but revising the plan caused delays in approval of a new deal to do the show. Meanwhile, tickets were on sale.
Cast members began expressing concerns to McGowen about whether the show could go forward.
“That was a concern directly raised by me,” Zale said. “I asked, ‘Are we kosher?’”
In December, Harry reached out to MTI via email and phone call to verify Pinch ‘n’ Ouch’s rights to do the show. MTI confirmed in a Dec. 6 reply to Harry that no version of “Rent in Concert” existed for licensing and that Pinch ‘n’ Ouch’s rights to do the show could not be confirmed.
“Grant is charming,” Harry said. “He’s got this Svengali quality to him. The building could be crumbling down, and he could look at you with a straight face and tell you that it’s not crumbling down, that everything’s fine. There were many occasions when he did that, and the people that were really close to him would tell a different story. Then you’d have to fact-check, and, once you fact-checked, you’d realize it was something else.”
McGowen said the rights were eventually granted to do “Rent,” but more rehearsal was needed to stage the full production. Then, he said, six cast members came down with COVID-19, so the show was moved to May.
Harry announced on his Facebook page on Dec. 7 that he was no longer associated with the show or the theater company. He said he did this because McGowen did not have a method in place to contact ticketholders about the canceled show. For his part, McGowen said he had email addresses to provide refunds. Additionally, he has offered those ticketholders complimentary tickets to “Tick, Tick . . . Boom.”
MTI confirmed by email to ArtsATL that Pinch ‘n’ Ouch’s productions of “Tick, Tick . . . Boom!” and “Rent” are now fully licensed.
Zale said she is very disappointed that she was unable to perform in “Rent” after months of work. Asked if she would have returned to the show had she been invited back for the May staging, she said “absolutely not.”
“I’m so deeply, deeply upset that I didn’t get to do my parts because I worked really hard on them,” she said. “It was going to be the chance of a lifetime. We all held on for so long because it was such a dream of ours individually, and it became a dream of ours collectively. We were willing to put ourselves under duress to make this vision happen.”
In the end, she said she believes McGowen’s many maneuvers to present the show that fell through were well intended.
“I don’t believe his intention was to screw people over, to be evil or to do unprofessional work,” Zale said. “I don’t think that is the case, but it does not negate the fact that he should not be doing it.”
IF YOU GO
“Tick, Tick . . . Boom!”
Through April 23. $30. Pinch ‘N’ Ouch Theatre, 195 Arizona Ave., Unit LW01, Atlanta. pnotheatre.org.
“Rent”
8:30 p.m. May 27. $30-$90. Variety Playhouse, 1099 Euclid Ave. NE, Atlanta. 404-876-5566, variety-playhouse.com.
Benjamin Carr, a member of the American Theatre Critics Association, is an arts journalist and critic who has contributed to ArtsATL since 2019. His plays have been produced at The Vineyard Theatre in Manhattan, as part of the Samuel French Off-Off Broadway Short Play Festival, and the Center for Puppetry Arts. His first novel, Impacted, was published by The Story Plant in 2021.
Credit: ArtsATL
Credit: ArtsATL
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