tick, tick…BOOM!

Rating

Director

Lin-Manuel Miranda

Screenplay

Steven Levenson (Musical: Jonathan larson)

Length

1h 55m

Starring

Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesus, Vanessa Hudgens, Joshua Henry, Jonathan Marc Sherman, MJ Rodriguez, Ben Levi Ross, Judith Light, Bradley Whitford

MPAA Rating

PG-13

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Review

The birth of greatness is not always spontaneous. In the case of Rent composer Jonathan Larson, it was the byproduct of years of fruitless struggles, a diner job, and a case of posthumous realization. tick, tick…BOOM! may have been Larson’s semi-autobiographical one-man show, but modern wunderkind Lin-Manuel Miranda found something inspirational within and brings it to the big screen in explosive fashion.

Larson, who redefined what a Broadway musical could look like with his smash hit Rent, is played here to manic excess and credible humanity by a sublime Andrew Garfield. His frustrations in pushing through a long bout of writer’s block fuel the inspiration of this production. After Larson’s death in 1996 at the age of 35, his first-person account of his own emotional journey as a un-produced musical composer was eventually transformed into a three-actor play and forms the framing device for this film. It looks at Larson’s creative process in attempting to get his loosely-adapted musical based on George Orwell’s 1984 produced.

As he strives to complete the final number for the show, his meager SoHo existence begins to crumble. His girlfriend (Alexandra Shipp) becomes annoyed by his single-minded fixation on his show over her. Meanwhile, his best friend (Robin de Jesus) gives up on his Broadway dreams to become a successful advertising executive at the height of the AIDS crisis. Both of these counterparts are based on real people, but with names taken directly from the stage version.

The journey Larson goes through, careening from manic exuberance to jaded disillusionment and everywhere in between gives Garfield a tremendous amount of material to work with, delivering on the promise that many of us saw in the young actor in films like Boy A and Never Let Me Go. Shipp is fine as Susan, but de Jesus is the breakthrough performer for his heartwarming and heartbreaking embodiment of Michael.

Most non-theatrical audiences aren’t terribly familiar with Larson’s tale, which makes this film such a heartened, devastating, and life-affirming production. Like Larson, director Miranda has come to redefine what Broadway can be. Miranda has managed to bask in the glow of his success whereas his breakthrough predecessor could not. This also makes Miranda uniquely qualified to explore the wonderful, frustrating, and exuberant look at recent theatrical history with no less inspiration than his own successes as a guide. What he produces is a love letter for musical theater kids pushing them to never give up on their dreams even if the tribulations they face on the road are difficult.

And while it won’t have the same impact on general audiences as it will for Broadway aficionados, there’s plenty to love for both groups. This is especially true for musical nerds who will recognize one particular number that riffs off Stephen Sondheim’s Sunday from Sunday in the Park with George and gives us plenty of Broadway legends, new and old, to luxuriate over including André De Shields, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Joel Grey, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Bebe Neuwirth, Phylicia Rashad, Chita Rivera, Phillipa Soo, and original co-star of Sondheim’s Sunday, Bernadette Peters. The film even manages to net a Sondheim vocal credit in a voice mail Jon receives from the composer. It’s a bittersweet moment and Sondheim died not long after filming wrapped. Sondheim had been a longtime supporter of Larson’s effort and his mentorship provides key moments in the film.

tick, tick…BOOM! is imbued with the dreary haze of 1990s malaise with bits of musical inspiration punctuating its at-times-joyous and at-times-heartrending nearly two-hour production. Thanks to the lively musical numbers, the running time breezes past and the film falls into that effortless ebb and flow that keeps the audience from growing weary as it watches. Garfield’s magnetic performance aids immeasurably.

Review Written

April 12, 2022