The late Jonathan Larson is best known for the Broadway show “Rent.” Insight into the composer and playwright can be found in an autobiographical musical to be staged in Michigan City.
Canterbury Summer Theatre continues its 50th anniversary season with “Tick, Tick … Boom!” July 18-28 at Canterbury Theatre.
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“I’m really excited to be directing it and proud to work at a theater that would include it in its season. ‘Tick, Tick … Boom!’ is a really powerful piece created off-Broadway in 2001 but was actually written years earlier,” said John Berst, director and music director for “Tick, Tick … Boom!”
“Playwright and songwriter Jonathan Larson would go on to fame and fortune as the author of the musical ‘Rent,’ which was a different musical for the 1990s. Unfortunately he didn’t live to see the success of that. He died on the morning of the dress rehearsal of its off-Broadway premiere.”
Larson, who died in 1996, posthumously received Tony Awards for best musical, best book of a musical and best original score as well as the Pulitzer Prize for drama for “Rent.”
“Jonathan Larson was born in 1960. In 1990 he was about to turn 30 years old. The opening number of ‘Tick, Tick … Boom!’ is called ‘30/90.’ The piece is about the week of his birthday,” Berst said.
“It’s really about an artist trying to survive and make an impact in very difficult ’90s America at the height of the AIDS crisis. It was a time of lots of protests and artistic revolt. Larson found himself in the thick of that.”
The “Tick, Tick … Boom!” cast is led by Canterbury Summer Theatre veteran Jesse Kortus, who appeared in “Boeing Boeing,” “First Date” and “Tenderly: The Rosemary Clooney Musical” in 2016.
Rosa Campbell and Andrew Palmintier are studying theater at Northwestern State University of Louisiana. Campbell appeared in this season’s “Graceland” and “The Bikinis” while Palmintier appeared in “Graceland” and “End of the Rainbow.”
“It’s a great cast. Ray Scott Crawford, the artistic director of Canterbury Summer Theatre, casts all the actors for the company. Once again he put together a great cast for me,” said Berst, who first worked with Canterbury Summer Theatre during the 2017 season.
“The lead guy who plays the Jonathan character is a professional actor. Jesse just recently graduated from college and is embarking on his career,” Berst said.
“Rosa is very talented. Andrew is helping me with some movement. There’s a very silly number called ‘Sugar,’ where Jonathan is running himself ragged so he goes to a bodega corner supermarket to give himself a sugar rush. A piece like that will have a lot of fun to it.
“They’re great actors and singers. I couldn’t be more happy to be working with them.”
Berst, who is the director of musical theater at the University of New Hampshire, is the music director for Canterbury Summer Theatre’s 2018 season. The pianist serves as accompanist for all the shows.
“What I like about Canterbury and the people who run it and the people who they hire is the company has real integrity,” he said.
“Part of theater’s responsibility is to entertain. I really respect the diversity that they put together in their season where they’re able to offer lighthearted summer fare and by the same token offer something a little meatier for people to get a taste of other aspects of theater.”
‘Tick, Tick … Boom!’
When: 2 p.m. July 18-19 and 25-26; 7:30 p.m. July 20 and 27; 6:30 p.m. July 21 and 28
Where: Canterbury Theatre, 807 Franklin St., Michigan City
Tickets: $16 Wednesdays-Thursdays; $17 Fridays-Saturdays
Information: 219-874-4269; www.canterburytheatre.org
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