Theatre Department Hosts Rock Musical

USD’s Theatre Department will be hosting “tick, tick… BOOM!” from Feb. 16-19 in the Wayne S. Knutson Theater in the Warren M. Lee Center for Fine Arts. 

The auto-biographical musical follows Jon, a writer, as he chases his dreams of writing a rock musical while also managing the important relationships in his life, with experiences based on Jonathan Larson, the writer of “RENT”. While originally a one-man monologue, the show now has a three-person cast, with two of the three cast members playing multiple characters.   

Senior Zach Lopez said he’s excited to be bringing the role of Jon to life.  

“I’m super excited to get the show rolling and on its feet,” Lopez said.  “If you know what it is about, or if you’ve experienced it, you love it most of the time. That’s the general consensus. A lot of people love this show.”  

Many may already be familiar with the show because of the 2021 film adaptation of the same name. 

“It’s really exciting because I know that people have been exposed to the Netflix show, which was also the first time I had an experience with the show as well,” Lopez said. “I had listened to some songs on the original Broadway soundtrack, but then watching ‘tick, tick… BOOM!’ on Netflix was really eye-opening for me.” 

While the story differs slightly from the film, the musical stays very similar, and many of the songs from the musical also appear in the film.  

“I think that because people have that tie and the opportunity to watch it, they’re going to be more drawn to come,” Lopez said. “Even though the stage version differs a little bit from what they did on Netflix, the story is very much still the same.” 

Tickets are now on sale and can be purchased from 12-5 p.m. at the Theatre Box Office, online or by calling (605)658-3484. 

“It’s exciting. It has comedy. It has sadness,” Lopez said. “There are moments where you’re going to laugh, and, I really hope, there are moments where you’re nodding your head, going along with the music.”