![]() ![]() Not long after his passing, Tick, Tick…Boom! was turned into a three-actor piece by David Auburn, and has been an off-Broadway and regional theater staple ever since. Larson died in 1996, before the premiere of his industry-changing musical Rent. In the background, Jon keeps hearing a clock ticking, a sense that he's running out of time to make his mark. Meanwhile, his best friend Michael has quit acting to go into advertising while his girlfriend Susan wants to move out of New York City and start a family. It was about his frustrations about turning 30, having toiled on a musical called Superbia for eight years with no productions to show for it. Tick…Tick…Boom! was first performed by Larson himself in 1990, as a one-person show. This was all new material written for the film. Before we lost him." This was the part that made me lean forward in my seat. Then we hear a voice-over: "This is Jonathan Larson's story. We see a character named Jon take the stage and sit behind a piano. The film version of Tick…Tick…Boom! begins the same way that the musical version does. It's an adaptation of the source material that is faithful, but also deepens, expands, and improves upon the musical in which it's based.Īnd I'm not just saying this because the characters talk about Sunday in the Park With George and then Bernadette Peters makes a cameo. And Schmigadoon! Out of that abundance, I can say without reservation that Lin-Manuel Miranda's adaptation of Jonathan Larson's musical Tick…Tick…Boom! is the not just the best movie musical released In 2021, but one of the best of all time. Musical-theater fans have been having a very good year: Broadway is back, and there's not one, not two, but seven movie musicals and two professionally shot productions being released this year. Vanessa Hudgens and Alexandra Shipp in particular stand out, especially in their shared number “Come to Your Senses”.Andrew Garfield and Robin de Jesús in Tick, Tick…Boom! ![]() I will say, however, that you’d be missing some solid vocal performances. If that’s a dealbreaker for you, walk away now. There are musical numbers, written by the real Jonathan Larson. But this isn’t a movie for the non-musical crowd anyway.īecause, apart from being a biopic, this is very much a musical. If you, like me, are not a huge Broadway fan, this is all going to sail straight over your head. Apart from the subject matter, the background cast is populated by stage performers, including cameos from members of the original casts of Hamilton and Rent. If there’s a world Lin-Manuel Miranda knows, it’s musical theater, and his love for that community is very apparent throughout the film. With the clock ticking, not just on his project, but on his relationship and his youth, Jonathan is going to have to figure out what he wants from his life…and soon. And, just to round things off, he’s missing a major musical number and has what feels like terminal writer’s block. His girlfriend, Susan (Alexandra Shipp) has been offered a great job out in the Berkshires and wants to know if he’s willing to move with her, his childhood friend and roommate Michael (Robin de Jesus) is moving out, and one of his co-workers has been hospitalized with complications arising from HIV/AIDS. With a major public reading of the play coming up, he doesn’t have time for anything else…so, of course, everything else in his life starts coming apart. ![]() He’s been working on a satirical sci-fi musical for the past 8 years between shifts at a local diner, coasting on positive feedback he got from theatre legend Stephen Sondheim (Bradley Whitford) at a workshop a few years into the process. With his 30 th birthday creeping up on him, aspiring theater composer Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield) is feeling the pressure. ![]()
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