Tick Tick Boom at New Helvetia Theatre

The verdict: An outstanding cast brings Jonathan Larson's autobiographical tale to life, and raises questions about what might have been

Having seen Jonathan Larson's two most significant contributions to American Musical Theater - Rent and Tick Tick Boom - on back to back weekends, one can't help but ask a few questions:

First, just what did the world miss out on because of this talented auteur's early death (Larson famously died from an undiagnosed heart condition just prior to the first public performance of Rent in 1996).

Second, would he have found a way to bring his unique but very time-and-place-bound world view to a broader story? Surely, after Rent, Larson would have been ready to move beyond the story of frustrated bohemians in New York trying to find their voice and their purpose.

And third, how eerie is it that premature death plays such a prominent role in his work? Both shows feature characters who's life potential is unnaturally cut down (or will be shortly) by early death.

Unlike Rent, with its sprawling story of over-lapping loves and relationships, Tick Tick Boom is a more intimate and focused. But both shows cover much of the same ground. The comparisons to Rent are inescapable (again, having seen the two shows on consecutive weekends, those comparisons are perhaps more inevitable in my case than they might normally be). Both shows feature lead characters who are struggling to find their creative voice in the face of poverty and the world's indifference. Both feature characters dealing with disease and near-certain death. Both feature central relationships that falter in the face of life's pressures. And both feature an improbably upbeat turn at the end (moving as it is, Mimi's miraculous resurrection in Rent is less believable and 'real' than Jon's unexpected phone call from a certain beloved Broadway composer near the end of Tick Tick Boom).

Tick Tick Boom focuses on one character - an aspiring Broadway composer named Jon (the show is admittedly autobiographical, and Jon in the play is meant to represent Jonathan Larson). Jon is played by the extremely talented Tristan Rumery, who just a couple of weeks ago was brilliantly playing addled hippie speller Leaf Coneybear in Runaway Stage's 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. He is ably aided by Nancy Zoppi, who plays his girlfriend Susan and by New Helvetia Theatre's founding artistic director Connor Mickiewicz, who plays Jon's roommate and best friend Michael.

All three actors are outstanding in this production. In the play Jon is on the verge of turning thirty, and he is struggling with his lack of commercial success, with his girlfriend's desire to move away from New York and to settle down somewhere "near the ocean," and with his envy of his best friend's suddenly upwardly mobile turn in life. Rumery plays him with a nice mix of doubt, insecurity and determination, even as he is buffeted by various setbacks and interpersonal struggles. Rumery is also a great singer, and puts emotion into Larson's often demanding vocal requirements.

Zoppi is truly outstanding, not only as the playful but earnest Susan, but also in a host of other fleeting parts. Both Zoppi and Mickiewicz often step into other roles to move the story along, and Zoppi shines as the ingenue Karessa and as Jon's chain-smoking agent, among other roles. I found her particularly engaging as the leader of the brainstorming session at Michael's market research firm, coaching the co-workers (which included, humorously, the members of the onstage band) as they tried to come up with a marketing strategy for a new fat substitute (Jon's breakthrough suggestion: Chubstitute!). Watching her spouting marketing cliches in an overly self-important manner, I couldn't help thinking "I know that woman!"

Mickiewicz is also excellent, but with fewer opportunities to shine. The singing of all three actors was outstanding, and the harmonies were spot on and impressive. The band, under Graham Sobelman's direction, was also outstanding.

The set was spare. The company effectively uses some elements of its black box set up, including turning the walls and floor, at various times, into chalkboards upon which the cast writes and paints with multi-colored chalk.

For those familiar with the more pervasive and popular Rent, much of the score will sound familiar. Larson has distinctive sound, but he effectively uses rock music to deliver his vision (and true rock music, too, as the lead character points out early on in the show). The opening number "30/90" and the playful "Green Green Dress" are highlights, and the humorous "Therapy", in which Jon and Susan explore their inability to communicate with each other, is truly brilliant.

Tick Tick Boom isn't exactly new in its subject matter - Sondheim's Company, to cite one example, covered much of the same ground more effectively - but, thanks to this impressive cast and band, it tells an engrossing story in an effective and entertaining way. And it is fascinating as a glimpse of Jonathan Larson's development into a powerful storyteller. It underscores the tragedy of his early death, and, taken together with Rent, can't help but force you to wonder what might have been.

Rent (at Sacramento Community Theatre)

The Verdict: The Show and the Audience Achieve a Perfect Vulcan Mind-Meld!

Never having seen Rent on stage, I was excited to hear that the touring company, starring original cast members Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp, was coming to Sacramento. That excitement was a little tempered by a concern that those two stars, now surely getting a little bit long in the tooth to be playing the twenty-something characters they had originated, might be participating as some kind of ego trip/guaranteed payday/nostalgia tour. Several years ago I saw a touring revival of Jesus Christ Superstar that starred the two actors who had played Jesus and Judas in the movie version, and it wasn't a great experience. Would this version of the show have the energy and passion of the original? Could it?

But I needn't have worried. The show was outstanding. Both Rapp and Pascal threw themselves into the role with the joie de vivre of the young Bohemians they were playing. They were joined by a very powerful cast – Lexi Lawson (is that a great name, or what!?) as the exotic dancer/drug addict Mimi had a powerful voice and stage presence, and Nicolette Hart as the performance artist Maureen was irrepressibly exuberant - for my money a big improvement in the part over Idina Menzel, who originated the role on Broadway and played Maureen in the movie version.

The thing that was really interesting to me was the audience reaction to the show. I guess I didn't realize, as popular as I know Rent is, that it had entered that realm where the audience and the show have formed this sort of symbiotic bond that is something like a force of nature. A few years ago we saw Monty Python's Spamalot on Broadway, and every time the crowd - clearly dominated by confirmed Monty Python fanatics - got even a hint of something happening on stage that paralleled the movie (the appearance of the Knights Who Say Ni, for example), they would break into spontaneous, irrational applause. That's how it was at Rent. It started with inexplicably enthusiastic applause for the stagehand that walked across stage prior to the start of the show to remove the 'turn off your cell phones' sign from its easel, and continued right through to the end of the show. When Rapp and Pascal, coincidentally the first two cast members to appear on stage, wandered out to start the show you'd have thought they were the two living Beatles, given their reception. Each signature musical motif was met with wild applause and cheering – the second act opens with “Seasons of Love,” the most well known song from the score, and the first note of the introduction – the first note, mind you! – was met with applause that drowned out the rest of the song’s introduction.

At the end of the show, I have never seen an audience leap so instinctively and immediately to its feet for a standing ovation – again, not that the show didn’t deserve it, but one can’t help thinking that, as primed as this audience was to enjoy itself, that response would have been the same even if Anthony Rapp was in a walker and Adam Pascal had forgotten all of his lyrics.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (at Runaway Stage)

The Verdict: Just about as good as community theatre gets!

One of the consistent characteristics of Runaway Stage's productions over the years has been the company's success at casting talented leads in its shows - while the ensembles can be inconsistent in terms of quality and professionalism (this is community theater after all), Bob Baxter has generally done a great job of attracting top talent to fill the lead roles in almost every show I've ever seen there.

Which makes The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee just about the ideal show for RSP - it features a small, cohesive cast where everyone's a lead! And Spelling Bee does not disappoint. It is a very funny show, put on with great skill by the small cast, and it makes for an extremely entertaining couple of hours.

What the show is "about" is summed up in the title - it all takes place at a spelling bee, featuring Putnam County's top juvenile spellers (with adult actors playing the kids). The six children (augmented in humorous fashion with nightly guest spellers chosen from the audience), two administrators and one "comfort counselor," interact throughout the show, often changing personas to participate in the back-stories of other cast members.

The energetic and talented cast features several outstanding performances. The standouts among the "children" were Tristan Rummery (as flower child turned zombie speller Leaf Coneybear), Christina Day (as the meek and conflicted Olive Ostrovsky) and Tony Wichowski as the spelling savant William Barfee, who's uniquely effective "magic foot" technique only accentuates his bizarre mannerisms and personality quirks. But Marcy Goodnow as the success-driven Marcy Park, Danielle Hansen as the pressured-to-succeed-at-any-cost Logainne Schwartzandgrubenenierre, and Scott Woodard as last year's champion Chip Tolentino all have strong moments.

Kristen Wagner shines as Rona Lisa Peretti, the adult supervisor and onetime spelling bee champion, who's personal self esteem seems way too caught up in the happenings of one this particular spelling bee. Dan Masden and Rudy Brown, as Vice Principal Douglas Panch and the comfort counsellor Mitch Mahoney are also very good. Marsden, as the uptight vice principal with a chip on his shoulder and a, um, shady past, also stands out as one of Logan's fathers in a couple of numbers. Brown could be a bit more intimidating in the role Mitch Mahoney, if only so that his nicer moments would come across as more of a transformation.

The story? Well, there really isn't one. Kids spell unusual words in between songs about their lives. There are lots of very funny bits...each speller's approach to the microphone is accompanied by a funny quip from Rona. On the night we attended, for example, we were told that one of the guest speller's had nicknamed herself "Frodo." Well, maybe you had to be there.

The genius of the show, though, is that the authors managed to capture the various angsts of childhood through characters that, though wandering very close to the edges of stereotype, are recognizable while still unique. Each child is able to express his or her character in song, usually relating it to childhood pressures that are familiar to all. Logan's struggles to please her two demanding gay fathers without losing her innate goodness, for example, and Olive's struggle to earn the love and recognition of her busy yuppie parents are particularly trenchant.

Some of the kids' struggles are less gripping than the others. Chip's earlier than expected departure from the Bee, spurred by his emerging hormonal preoccupations, is a bit painful to watch. His big song "Chip's Lament," ought to be funnier than it is. I can't help thinking that the authors thought this would be one of "those" big breakthrough moments on stage, when old taboos are broken. But it's been over thirty years since Val sang proudly about her Tits and Ass in A Chorus Line, so a character singing about his unfortunate erection comes across as more icky than innovative.

But there were few quibbles like that about the show. It was a nearly perfect marriage of material and local talent, and RSP is to be commended. I laughed all the way through it, but still was able to touched by the human elements. Well done!

The Producers at Davis Musical Theatre Company

In the interest of full disclosure, I should begin this review by stating that I am a huge fan of The Producers. I saw the original Broadway version starring Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, I saw the production in Los Angeles starring Jason Alexander and Martin Short; and I saw the touring company when it came to Sacramento starring people whose names I no longer recall. And I loved all three versions of the show.

So, when I saw that The Producers was going to enter the world of community theatre, I was, shall we say, a tad trepidatious. How, one had to wonder, will such a star-driven show play at the local level where the talent pool doesn't generally include the likes of Lane, Broderick, Alexander, and/or Short? I told myself to moderate my expectations - community theatre is not Broadway.

And yet the comparisons were unavoidable. For example, there is a scene in the middle of Act II where Max Bialystock, abandoned by his partner Leo and hauled off to jail, sits alone in a cell and bemoans his fate. When I saw it in New York, I remember Nathan Lane literally stopping the show at this point. The song he performs, in which he recaps the entire show up to that point in two or three minutes, was met with wave after wave of applause cascading down on the beaming/mugging Mr. Lane. At Davis, at the same point, the very game and witty Martin Lehman performed the same song to somewhat bewildered applause from the audience. It wasn't that it was bad, it was just that the number had changed from a showstopper designed to show off the talents of a specific Broadway Star to a somewhat curious number that didn't really move the plot forward. So, while I know it isn't fair, I can't help viewing any performance of The Producers through that prism of prior experience with the show.

The musical version of The Producers is based on Mel Brooks’s very funny movie of the same title. Both the movie and the musical tell the story of a down-on-his-luck Broadway producer Max Bialystock (Lehman) whose latest show, a musical version of Hamlet called Funny Boy, has just closed on its opening night to terrible reviews. Nearing financial collapse, Max is visited by Leo Bloom (Andy Hyun), a milquetoast accountant who, in the course of discovering a discrepancy in the producer's books, postulates that a producer could, in fact, make more money with a flop than with a hit. This leads to the development of a grand scheme to find and produce the "worst show ever written," which, as a surefire flop, will make the two men millionaires and leave the authorities none the wiser. The catch, of course, is that if the show is a hit, the plan backfires and they will likely go to jail for a good long time.

The two embark on a comic adventure that leads them to their personal holy grail - a play about the Third Reich called "Springtime for Hitler." Along the way, they encounter and collect the comically unreformed Nazi playwright Franz Liebkind (Kyle Hadley), the comically gay director Roger DeBris (Richard Spierto), the director's even more comically gay "common law secretary" Carmen Gia (Joseph Boyette), and a comically vivacious, curvaceous and thoroughly bodacious Swedish songstress/dancer named Ulla (Amy Jacques-Jones). Together, these six individuals set out to launch "Springtime for Hitler" on an unsuspecting world. Those familiar with the original movie will note the absence of the crazy hippy named "LSD," whose elimination from the story when it made its way to Broadway spared the world perhaps one comically stereotypical character too many.

Since the fortunes of The Producers depend so decidedly on the talents of these six stars, let's take a moment to review their performances:

Most of the heavy lifting, acting wise, in The Producers is handled by Lehman and Hyun, as Max and Leo. And both, while perhaps too young for the parts they were playing, were generally up to the task. Lehman's Max was very good in his opening scene with Leo, alternately belittling and baiting the younger man, showing his near manic persona in nice juxtaposition with his more playful side. While his singing (particularly in the aforementioned "Betrayed") left much to be desired, he delivered his numbers with gusto and enthusiasm. His best singing moments were, perhaps, in the number "Along Came Biali," in which he sets out to raise money for the pair's doomed show by wooing (for want of the more graphic word that pops to mind) a brigade of little old ladies in New York city in order to separate them from their money. He is appropriately smarmy, devious and charming throughout this number.

Hyun, as Leo, took a little longer to warm up to, but eventually managed to make the part his own. In the early scenes he was a little too clearly acting, rather than inhabiting his role, but he seemed to grow more comfortable as he went along. He has a nice singing voice, and his scenes with Ulla were pleasant, as the two showed some nice chemistry.

Which brings us to Ulla. Ms. Jacques-Jones is really very good in the role – sexy and teasing, her Swedish accent only occasionally disappearing. While she inhabits the role very well, her singing voice is, like most of the company’s, not quite up to the demands of the songs she’s asked to sing. This is particularly true during her signature song “When you Got it, Flaunt it.” When she says “Now, Ulla belt,” the expectation is that Ulla will, in fact, belt. But belting isn’t really part of her repertoire. Other than that, though, she is extremely good in the part.

(A sidebar question – why doesn’t DMTC use microphones? This production was really hindered by their absence, both for the leads and the ensemble. Case in point, the opening of the show, the curtain opens, two usherettes step forward and sing the opening lines of the show… and you can barely hear them. What’s up with that?).

Mr. Spierto, playing the flamboyant director Roger DeBris, is very funny, if a little physically precarious. His performance is another, though, that would have benefited from the use of amplification. But Joseph Boyette, who was recently very impressive in Runaway Stage's Footloose, stole every scene he was in. He was the standout in the cast, making what can be a ridiculously overwritten part almost believable.

And then there's Kyle Hadley, who, as the unrepentant Nazi Franz Liebkind, gets more laughs than anyone else (well, short of Mr. Boyette perhaps). A non-singer in a role that doesn't really require great singing (if you need proof of that, catch Will Farrell playing the role in the movie version of The Producers!), Hadley's iffy German accent doesn't take away from a very funny performance.

The rest of the cast is unspectacular, although there were some very funny individual efforts. Both Eimi Stokes and Adam Sartain, each of whom played a number of ensemble roles, stood out in their brief moments in the spotlight.

For the most part, the cast put together a very creditable version of the show. The major set pieces were well done. The exception would be the big "Springtime for Hitler" set piece, which suffers from the limitations imposed by the community theater environment. The stage just isn't big enough, the costumes aren't flamboyant enough, and the overall impact just can't live up to expectations.

The sets are passable approximations of the original versions, although if you're going to use projections in lieu of set pieces (as this production did a couple of times), I'd suggest the theater invest in some better quality technology.

So, what's the verdict? It was good. It was fun. It was worth seeing. Was it anything like the versions I'd seen before? Well, no. Not really even close. But for local theatre? Not bad at all. A fun evening.