Latest Singapore staging of Tick, Tick... Boom! resonates with cast and director
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Director Derrick Chew (left) chose a five-person cast, starring Preston Lim (centre) as Jonathan Larson and Vanessa Kee as his girlfriend.
ST PHOTO: HESTER TAN
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SINGAPORE – Derrick Chew, the founder of theatre company Sight Lines Entertainment, had a serendipitous encounter on a recent trip to the United States.
In Washington, DC in late January for a vacation, he caught a staging of the hit musical Tick, Tick… Boom! directed by American actor Neil Patrick Harris at the Kennedy Center.
On a whim, Chew, 38, reached out to a cast member, who invited him to the Library of Congress where they were able to see the handwritten notes of Jonathan Larson, the creator of the semi-autobiographical Tick, Tick…Boom! (2001) and Rent (1996). The American composer died in 1996 at the age of 35 from an undiagnosed aortic dissection.
Chew, who is directing and producing the Singapore staging of Tick, Tick... Boom! at the KC Arts Centre from July 5 to 14, says: “I met one of Jonathan’s ex-girlfriends, Victoria Leacock, at the Library of Congress. They dated for only three months but remained very good friends, and she was one of the producers of the first version of Tick, Tick… Boom! in 1990.”
A few days later, he met Ms Leacock for coffee during the New York leg of his vacation, planned because he felt it was a good opportunity to better understand Larson’s life in the city, which forms the vibrant setting for his musicals.
A film adaptation, directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and starring Andrew Garfield as Larson, was released by Netflix in 2021.
“She knew the current tenants of his old apartment so I got to see it in person. The tenants told us that when the film came out, a lot of his ex-girlfriends came back to relive their memories or walk the location. We were very amused by it,” Chew says.
He had been thinking about the musical since 2012 when he started Sight Lines, but obtained the licence to stage a Singapore version only around May 2023. “I was looking for a small musical to do and loved Rent, which is how I got to know about Tick, Tick… Boom!. Frankly, I think the musical was a bit unknown at the time, and in Singapore, you need an obviously recognisable product that is easy to sell. It was always at the back of my mind as something I wanted to revisit.”
The release of the Netflix film pushed Chew to license the show.
However, the uncertainties of the theatre scene in the post-Covid-19 world further delayed the staging.
Chew took the plunge after the licensing company told him someone else had expressed interest in staging the work. “I knew that if I were to champion Jonathan’s story about relentlessly pursuing your dreams, I needed to grab my ‘Jonathan moment’ and do this.” Tick, Tick... Boom! was first staged in Singapore in 2006 by home-grown production company Fiction Farm.
The latest production features Preston Lim, 32, as Larson and rising theatre star Vanessa Kee, 27, as his girlfriend Susan. Actor and dancer Ryan Ang is also part of the cast as Michael, Jonathan’s best friend, while Beatrice Jaymes Pung and Eric Larrea take on ensemble roles.
It is typically staged as a three-man show with the actors playing Susan and Michael taking on all other roles as well, but Chew decided to make it a five-person cast instead to better depict character relationships.
The musical follows Larson as he struggles to make it in the New York City theatre industry in 1990, days before his 30th birthday. Fielding requests from his girlfriend to move elsewhere and facing pressure from his best friend to settle down with a stable job, he questions what sacrifices are required to make it in the arts.
Tick, Tick… Boom!’s themes of struggling in theatre and pursuing one’s passion hit close to home for both Preston Lim and Vanessa Kee.
ST PHOTO: HESTER TAN
The work was performed twice off-Broadway, but was reworked into a stage musical after Larson’s death. It premiered off-Broadway in 2001 and has since been produced on the West End, along with numerous international productions and an off-Broadway revival in 2016.
Lim can identify with the lead character’s dilemma. He says: “It’s real, turning 30 and having the realisation like, ‘Oh gosh.’ When you’re in your 20s, 30 is so far away, but then you turn 29 and it’s ‘Oh, what am I doing with my life?’ When I saw the audition come up, I had just turned 31, and at that point, it felt like I had to give it a shot. It was a real feeling that I had to try for it.”
Kee says: “I think the Singapore theatre economy is a different beast altogether. It’s so different from the US or UK because we don’t get one- or two-year contracts. The times I’ve felt like other actors are on the brink of giving up are so real, I’ve been there myself.”
Unlike his character, Lim works a day job as a software engineer and pursues his passion for theatre after hours.
“Where I relate to Jonathan’s story is the idea of existentialism and having many passions but not knowing where they’ll lead. He feels very strongly about everything. I love theatre, software and mosquitos, which I’m working on for my doctorate and I know it’s a little weird,” Lim says with a laugh.
Kee, who is a full-time actress, adds jokingly: “If there’s only one job in the world I would give theatre up for at any time, it would be to become the next (broadcaster-biologist) David Attenborough, but that’s really hard, so I’m happy with theatre, which I love so much.”
Book it/ Tick, Tick… Boom!
Where: KC Arts Centre, 20 Merbau Road sistic.com.sg/events/TTB0724
When: July 5 to 14; 8pm from Tuesdays to Fridays, 3 and 8pm on weekends
Admission: From $50
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