When Rent opened on Broadway in the winter of 1996, it changed the landscape of musical theatre forever. Not only did the show expand upon the kinds of music styles you might hear in a mainstream musical, the story amplified the voices of communities that were rarely represented on the Broadway stage. It had a “downtown” sensibility, spending years in developmental workshops and studio productions before finally opening on Broadway, receiving multiple Tony Awards, the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and a 12 year-long run. However, the show’s creator, Jonathan Larson, wasn’t able to see any of this success. On January 25th, 1996, Larson died at age 35 of an undiagnosed genetic disorder the day before Rent’s first performance. So began the legacy of Jonathan Larson which, in retrospect, goes back far before the creation of Rent.
Following the failure of a futuristic rock musical called Superbia, which took a majority of Larson’s 20s to write, the songwriter created a new musical entitled tick, tick…BOOM!, an autobiographical “rock monologue” performed as a solo show by Larson in the early 90s about his struggles as a musical theatre writer, his fears of turning 30, and the greater AIDS crisis that was devastating the theatre community around him. Following Larson’s death, the musical was reworked into a three-person chamber piece, with one actor playing Jonathan and two additional actors playing Michael and Susan, Larson’s best friend and girlfriend. It became somewhat of a cult hit over the years, with numerous notable productions before receiving the movie musical treatment from first-time director Lin-Manual Miranda, the Pulitzer Prize winning songwriter of Hamilton. The result is a loving tribute to the spirit of an artist who never lived to see the lasting impact he’s had on both the work and the artists of the contemporary musical theatre world.
We join Jon (Andrew Garfield) in the week leading up to a workshop of his musical, Superbia. He spends his days calling every producer in New York City, trying to contact his unreachable agent, and struggling to write a new song in Act II for his female lead, a suggestion made by the increasingly supportive musical theatre legend, Stephen Sondheim (Bradley Whitford). To pay the bills, Jon works at the Moondance diner, waiting tables and writing songs about every seemingly unimportant thing that comes to mind: “Sugar, she’s refined. For a small price, she blows my mind.” Jon’s friend since childhood, Michael (Robin de Jesus), recently gave up acting to pursue a more financially stable career in advertising, while Jon’s girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp) was offered a job teaching dance in the Berkshires. She wants Jon to go with her, but he avoids the conversation for as long as he can, even to the point of forgetting it needs to be had.
The film uses the construct of Larson’s stage version of tick, tick…BOOM! as an overarching frame narrative within the movie, allowing Garfield’s Jon to periodically narrate his story during this stage performance that is interspersed throughout the described events playing in real-time. Miranda, and cinematographer Alice Brooks (who also shot In the Heights released earlier this year), use a standard widescreen aspect ratio that sometimes gives way to replicated home video in the appearance of VHS playback, matching the archival footage of Jonathan Larson that plays over the end credits of the film. Miranda additionally gives us a way into and out of the film by establishing the context for Larson’s legacy and providing clarification of the part-biopic, part-filmed-stage-performance that we are viewing. Everything is true, we are told, except for the parts that Jonathan Larson made up.
The film’s musical language comes from the diegetic songs Jon is writing for Superbia, as well as the song-world that exists in Jon’s mind as he experiences everything around him. The stage frame narrative allows Miranda to cut back and forth between Jon singing at the piano and the real action of what his lyrics are about. This creates a great sense of energy in the editing as we are often able to receive plot information through dialogue scenes placed within character development songs, all while maintaining a high sense of urgency through the musical underscoring. As Jon finds new lyrics in the world around him — melodies appear in lines of architecture as lyrics reveal themselves in street propaganda — we see phrases like “fear or love?” and “the boss is wrong as rain” appear on screen before later hearing them in the culmination of a song. While some of the flaws from the source material remain, Miranda and his music team do great work to repurpose and even expand upon the musical vision of Larson’s original show; the eclectic incongruence of the songs better framed within the scatteredness of Jon’s agitated persona.
tick, tick…BOOM! is anchored by a career-defining performance from Andrew Garfield, who brings infectious energy and captivating charisma to magnify the essence of Jonathan Larson. Not only does Garfield elevate every emotional beat, he also gives a great vocal performance, prioritizing the action of the lyric — and a frequent delight in its creation — rather than attempting the technique of a perfect singer. Alexandra Shipp and Robin de Jesus each shine in their supporting roles, both bringing their background as singers to the film’s musical soundscape. Additional singers Joshua Henry and Vanessa Hudgens lend their voices to the frame stage performance while also appearing as cast members in the workshop of Superbia. Hudgens’ character, Karessa, plays the stage performance substitute for Susan, leading to one of the film’s most dynamic moments of musical cross-cutting as Jon and Karessa sing a song inspired by a fight that Jon and Susan are concurrently having. We are experiencing the cause and effect simultaneously, the inspiration for the art and the art itself.
There’s something about Lin-Manuel Miranda’s ability to call up a favor from any Broadway legend in the creation of this film that feels slightly disingenuous to the nature of these characters who are banging on every possible door just to get in the room. One sequence in particular, which might be one of most elaborate musical theatre “easter eggs” in movie musical history, calls a lot of attention to itself for being outside of the world that Jonathan Larson was a part of. Even if it’s an effective moment of character storytelling, seeing so many Broadway faces of the present-day reminds us that we are not in the 90s. It’s a jarring sequence both in the height of its stylistic presentation, which is never again attempted, and in the guessing game of Broadway “who’s who?” While the film mostly presents itself as a biopic aiming for period accuracy, it prioritizes feeling like a love letter from the Broadway community today to one of the most prominent figures to usher them here in the first place.
Jon has a great line early in the film about the point in life where you stop being a writer who waits tables and you turn into a waiter who has a hobby. Ultimately, tick, tick…BOOM! is about this exact idea: that our lives become defined by how we choose to “waste time.” Not only does Jon hear “age 30” barreling towards him like the ticking of a clock, he also faces the growing concern that what he’s chosen to do with his life is never going to be of any value to the world around him. However, Jonathan Larson’s story serves as a reminder to anyone pursuing a life in the arts that our work does matter. Whether we are able to find happiness in other professional fields, or we continue to choose life as an artist over and over and over despite the fear that nobody is listening, as long as we do it for ourselves and are purposeful with our time, we should consider it time well spent.
