Set Design for Tick Tick Boom

Tick Tick Boom! by American musical theatre writer and composer Jonathan Larsen was first staged off-Broadway in 2001. This commercial touring production was directed by VCA Head of Musical Theatre Tyran Parke and produced by Storeyboard Entertainment, intending to swifting transfer between cities and place the focus on the performances from a compact cast. The minimal set design sought to evoke both the gritty bohemian environment of 1990’s New York as well as symbolise the creative barriers in place for the lead character through the use of twin monumental slabs of brickwork framing an intimate performance stage. As an acknowledgement to the raw and intimate staging style that spawned the original off-Broadway production, the band and cast are featured onstage as a community, surrounding the central narrator character of Jon on an isolated and confined performance area. The use of light and its interaction with these scenic elements expressed the notion of the creative impulse which was ultimately able to penetrate these soaring physical obstacles.