JohnG, I know the audience loved Tick Tock - I loved Tick Tock and I think the show NEEDS Tick Tock and it should be there. It's a wonderfully theatrical moment. Of course you need a real choreographer and a real dancer to do it.
The first live production that I saw was done in Seattle by the no-longer-existing Alice B. Theatre who switched some of the couples to be either gay or lesbian couples, and two of Bobby's "girl friends" were played by men. In the lobby of their theater was an article about a cease-and-desist letter from Sondheim (or maybe it was from his representatives), and that Sondheim actually let them go on with the production because the letter came too close to their opening night. The article also went on to say that this is what it's about...that Bobby's gay! But the writer really got it wrong. I never felt from their production that that was what their production was about. It really was still about Bobby not being able to commit, whether it was with a man or woman.