{"id":1831,"date":"2025-12-20T14:10:01","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T13:10:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jayweiner.me\/blog\/?p=1831"},"modified":"2026-02-16T14:10:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T13:10:24","slug":"tick-tick-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jayweiner.me\/blog\/music-diary\/tick-tick-boom\/","title":{"rendered":"tick, tick… BOOM!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Musical theatre in English, in Brussels, produced by The Bridge Theatre<\/a>. Performances were held at Stassart House from 14 October to 2 November 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tick, Tick\u2026 Boom!<\/em> is a semi-autobiographical musical by Jonathan Larson (1960 \u2013 1996), who later wrote Rent. It follows Jon, a struggling composer in 1990s New York who\u2019s about to turn 30 and having a full existential crisis about it. He\u2019s waiting tables while trying to finish his big musical, Superbia<\/em>, and he\u2019s convinced that if he doesn\u2019t \u201cmake it\u201d soon, he never will. Meanwhile, his girlfriend wants a more stable life, his best friend is choosing a steady corporate job, and Jon feels torn between chasing his dream and accepting something safer. The show captures that intense pressure he puts on himself as the clock keeps ticking past his 30th birthday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I went to this show (on November 1st ) because I got invited by Djavan (playing Jon) who is a previous member of BLOC (brussels light opera company, with whom i played Charlie in Charlie and the chocolate factory). I’d never seen the film adaptation so this was my first impression of the story, but i’d heard a few of the songs before (notably the opening song ‘happy birthday’).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All around, i thoroughly enjoyed the show. All three of the actors were superb, bounced off each other really well, and consistently held their own in singing and dancing alike. i attended the penultimate show, and it was clear in the way the players inhabited the stage that they’d had plenty of time to really accustom themselves to it and make the piece their own. all the humour and gags were very well executed, but so were the heavier moments as well as more technically challenging scenes like one where Dan Buckley and Laura Benson each needed to play various different characters within a short span of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I got to talk to Djavan after the show, and my main question was how he hasn’t gotten sick of it after nearly a month of playing the same musical every day (coming from someone who’s only ever played in shows with nine performances maximum). He simply replied that it comes with the job and that, for example, when he played Kristoff in “Frozen” on the west end, the amount of shows was much much higher, and one just can’t afford to lose interest, but that the twenty or so for “tick tick boom” was actually refreshingly few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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CAST <\/h6>\n\n\n\n
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