Pittsburgh CLO Opens Newly Renovated Greer Cabaret Theatre with Impressive tick, tick . . . Boom!

 

Ethan Riordan as Jonathan in His Apartment Credit: kgtunney Photography

    Time is running out for soon-to-turn-30 Jonathan, a wannabee musical theater composer. Struggling to finish a musical he’s been working on for years titled Superbia, he’s beginning to question that his theatrical career choice may have been a bad decision.

    With no prospects for production of the musical on the horizon, he’s beginning to think his near poverty level existence is a failed sacrifice on his hoped-for road to success. Regrets, he has a few, along with angst and tortuous doubts.

Ethan Riordan as Jonathan and Sarah Bishop as Susan Credit: kgtunney Photography

    Not only does he have to watch as his long-time, best friend and former aspiring actor, Michael, displays new found wealth in an alternate career in marketing in the form of an enviable Upper East Side apartment and a new BMW, loaded to the teeth with accessories like heated seats, he has to deal with a girlfriend, Susan, who wants him to abandon the musical theater capital of New York for the creative hinterland of Cape Cod to live a “normal life.”

    It’s a revamping of the theme of the struggling artist persevering while, at the same time, battling his aspirations and convictions against the pull of the material world available from more lucrative and secure employment.

    tick, tick, Boom is a semi-biographical account of Jonathan Larson, who went on the write the explosively popular Broadway hit, Rent, which won him a Pulitzer Prize for Drama and a Tony Award for Best Musical. The composer conceived of the show as a one-man performance, but after his death, playwright David Auburn reshaped the narrative that features three actors in a half dozen or so roles.

    As Jonathan, Ethan Riordan is convincing in the role, controlling his dissatisfactions maturely, gamely maintaining his status as unproved professional, nicely balancing his optimism with doubts about his future and creating a likable character.

    The fact that Riordan spent a year singing and traveling with the acclaimed Yale a cappella group, The Whiffenpoofs, says reams about his vocal skills. He certainly holds the audience with his rendition of “Why” and in the opening song “Thirty/Ninety.”

    As his romantic partner, Susan, Sarah Bishop shines in the solo “Come to Your Senses” and excels in the various characters she’s asked to portray. Because the venue doesn’t have printed programs to hand out to the audience during the performance, patrons are asked to access the program via their cell phones from a QR code.

    Because I didn’t have my cell phone available at the time, I didn’t have a list of the cast members and didn’t even know that the roster was limited to three. Bishop was so convincing in all the minor characters she portrays that I believed there was more than one female actor on stage. Kudos Bishop for fooling me.

Sarah Bishop (Susan), Ethan Riordan (Jonathan) and Billy Mason (Mixhael) Credit: kgtunney Photography 

    The choice of exceptionally fine actor/singers doesn’t stop there. As the third member of the company, Billy Mason is an endearing Michael, a warm and loyal friend who rightly or wrongly, entices Jonathan away from his dreams of musical theater success by showing him the rewards available in an alternative career. He even goes so far as arrange a meeting between Jonathan and his marketing employers to give his downhearted composer a tempting option.

    Mason has a mellow and velvety-rich voice and a personality to match. He blends in well with his cast mates, giving textural contrasts to their varied and wide-ranging characterizations.

    Orchestra conductor, Robert Neumeyer, leads a four-piece ensemble that sounds the right size for the venue. Martha Banta’s direction gives the musical the point-on energy level and sense of intimacy and authenticity and allows for the brush strokes of humor to brighten up the musical’s emotional palette.

    Following its $6 million refurbishment, the Greer Cabaret Theater got off to a noteworthy start after being closed since the spring of 2022 with a solidly polished and entertaining production. If you enjoyed “Rent,” you might want to take a look at what came before from the mind of this young composer, who got the attention of and approbation from Stephen Sondheim before the former’s untimely demise.

    tick, tick . . . Boom!, a production of the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera, is at the Greer Cabaret Theater, Penn Avenue at Seventh Street in downtown Pittsburgh, through October 22. Phone 412-456-6666 or PittsburghCLO.org.