How does one man tell the saga of the first 25 years of the Baby Boomer generation -- in words, pictures and music -- from the point-of-view of three different people, with cameo appearances from about 100 of the most prominent personalities of that era?
Well just ask the multi-talented Rick Miller, as his one-man time capsule stage show "Boom" is amazing audiences during its Montreal run at the Segal Centre for Performing Arts until April 10.
The show, which recently marked its 200th performance since its debut last year, is a whirlwind, multi-media chronicle, in which Miller puts himself into his own time capsule and takes the audience into a fast-paced two-hour historical journey of the people, music, culture and events that shaped this era from the end of World War II to the Apollo 11 moon landing.
There are two things about "Boom" that really stood out for me, and proved that it is not just some predictable historical review that solely relies on archival photos and newsreel film footage. First of all, there's Rick Miller's boundless energy and enthusiasm when he is onstage. His passion for the show and its subject is quite evident, as he deftly recreates the music and voices of the 100 or so personalities that make up this historical mosaic without breaking his rhythm, from Tony Bennett singing "Cold Cold Heart", to an announcer's voice over for a classic TV commercial, to a recreation of Ed Sullivan's January 1959 on-the-spot interview with Fidel Castro in Havana. To put it succinctly, Miller is a human dynamo of a performer, and his passion for this production is quite evident.
The other thing is how Miller utilizes the Ken Burns-type of approach when it comes to telling the story of the Baby Boomer period between 1945 and 1969 without being overwhelmed by its rather enormous scope. What Miller does is that he tells the story of this period in history through the eyes of three different people in Miller's life -- his father (who was an immigrant from post-war Vienna), his mother (who was born and raised in a small town in southern Ontario), and Lawrence, a blues musician from Chicago -- in which their common denominator is that each of them lived through this period, were affected by these exciting, turbulent events in their own way, and somehow their lives become intertwined with each other. This approach gives a more concise, yet human approach to the narrative, and shows that the Cold War, the Space Race, Beatlemania and Trudeaumania not only impacted the the course of modern history, but the lives of ordinary people who were caught up by all of it, but who not necessarily changed the course of that history.
"Boom" is a vibrant, fascinating example of living history. And Rick Miller is a one-man history book, as he gives the audience a fun, time travelling journey of one of the most important, most tumultuous and most exciting periods in modern history. And if you enjoyed "Boom", I am happy to announce that during the talkback session that followed the opening night performance that I attended, Miller disclosed that there will be two sequels to "Boom" in the works; the first one dealing with the period from 1970 to 1995, and the second covering the years from 1996 to the present. Get ready for more time warping with Rick Miller as your guide.
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