SHB Explores

Since I was young, the performing arts have been part of my life. The first production I remember attending was a touring performance of Raggedy Ann and Andy performed at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines by The Children’s Theatre Company of Minneapolis in 1989. (I love this spectacularly dated television ad promoting the show.) Since then, I have performed in numerous community productions, worked as a high school drama department assistant and coach, and attended more than 100 community and professional theatre company productions in diverse cities including Des Moines, Minneapolis, Boston, New York City, and London.

There are so many things to love about live theatre: the electric moment when the curtain goes up and a hush spreads through the audience, the symbiotic relationship between actors and audience members as they react to each other, the magic of words on a page coming to life by living, breathing human beings right in front of you. The impact is raw and immediate, lacking much of the precision and polish resulting from editing in movies. Live performance is human and relatable; no two performances are exactly the same, even if the same artists performed the same show in the same conditions in front of the same audience.

For many of my generation, Jonathan Larson’s RENT provided a much-needed alternative to the opium of the masses being produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber. (Okay, yes, I had dreams of being Christine in The Phantom of the Opera… or perhaps more particularly, of being Sarah Brightman, but that is a story for another time.) RENT was for my generation what Jesus Christ Superstar was for my mother: something revolutionary, a necessary evolution of musical theatre from the Rodgers and Hammerstein tradition to something edgy and reflective of the world and the times in which we lived. Well, maybe not exactly the world I was living in since I was in middle school, but the world we were beginning to connect to through the burgeoning world wide web, a world where we didn’t have to take others’ words for what was happening or rely on the news stations’ determination of what stories merited coverage. RENT was real and raw, sweaty and sexual, angry and lonely, fearful and hopeful. RENT was the story of coming of age “at the end of the millennium,” as Larson wrote.

Yesterday, I was transported back in time as I watched Theatre L’Homme Dieu and Artistry‘s co-production of tick, tick…BOOM! at Theatre L’Homme Dieu’s beautiful theater in Alexandria, Minnesota. tick, tick…BOOM! is a semi-autobiographical musical written by Jonathan Larson when he was an artist struggling to write- and find support to produce- a musical entitled Superbia. tick, tick…BOOM! explores the themes of adulthood, relationships, and the decisions and sacrifices made to pursue one’s passion. This 90-minute musical takes place on the cusp of the 30th birthday of the main character, Jon, and utilizes a sparce set and minimal costuming, directing all attention to the performers. The cast of the show- Matt Riehle, Suzie Juul, and Phinehas Bynum as Jon, Susan, and Michael, respectively- are a powerful trio who bring the story to life with deep emotion, unselfconscious humor, and vibrancy. Under the direction of Kelli Foster Warder, each actor’s emotional journey plays out individually and in their relationships with each other. I had goosebumps the moment the three first harmonized and they returned numerous times throughout the show. Yes, the performers are that good.

Perhaps seeing the show merely one week after my 40th birthday made the experience particularly poignant as I reflected on my own dreams as a young adult and where life has since taken me: the friendships which persist, the relationships come and gone, the underthinking and (mostly) overthinking of decisions. In some moments, I have been Jon; in others, Susan or Michael. We can never know how things would have been different if we turned left at the fork in the road instead of right or said yes instead of no. But for 90 minutes, we can lose ourselves in the darkness of a theater, listening to the tick, tick, booms of Jon’s life in the week before his 30th birthday, celebrating the beautiful messiness of love, life, and finding our way in the world.