Tick, tick …..Boom!

Our ‘local’ theatre has been largely out of commission for the last few years, undergoing a multi million pound redevelopment.  This month it’s reopened with its first production’Tick, Tick…. Boom’ - the musical based on Jonathan Larson’s struggle to become a successful composer. You may have seen the film starring Andrew Garfield. It’s a small scale musical with only three actors, but they are magnificent with demanding songs and almost constant performance - particularly for Ryan Owen playing Jon. It’s excellent and has received rave reviews in the National press. 

The exuberance of the show is tinged with sadness if you know the Larson story. He went on to write Rent, but died from undiagnosed Marfan syndrome the day before its first preview so never got to see his ultimate success or to receive the several Tony awards or the Pulitzer Prize the show gained. 

It’s good to have this small theatre open once more. As a producing theatre, it offers something different from the standard fare of touring productions. We’re surprised that the main auditorium seems largely unchanged - not that it needed changing - and it seems the redevelopment has been largely front of house. The ladies toilets, for example, are now fit for purpose having tripled in size. And there will now be a new Bryn Williams restaurant- yet to open. We’re very pleased to have our theatre back, but somewhat underwhelmed by the changes; it’s certainly a very attractive building but we definitely prefer the main auditorium being named after Anthony Hopkins rather than ‘Moondance’ as it is now! 

So my main today is a shot of the frontage of the theatre. There’s still landscaping in progress as you can see, and I think the name Theatr Clwyd will be placed on the building somewhere. As an extra, there’s the finale staging of the show.