Tick, tick... boom!

The musical Tick tick… boom was written by Jonathan Larson right before Rent, and Rent is the phenomenon of a musical that Larson didn’t live to see flourish. And so, a story of a songwriter who seemingly couldn’t stop himself writing songs—and really very good ones too, with a variety of influences including Billy Joel—is a great companion piece to Rent as well as being a celebration of a beloved talent who died tragically young.

And it’s extra poignant that the musical is brought to the screen in a directorial debut from Lin-Manuel Miranda. Miranda is a beloved figure in musical theatre and animated movie musicals, and you can draw lines from Hamilton back to Rent. Both shows brought in fans at the ground level with lotteries: you didn’t have to have hundreds of dollars, you just queued up daily to enter the lottery, and it was this that grew the Rent community in New York. It didn’t quite take off in London, and I wouldn’t say that Rent is for me, but I admire it and many of the people I’ve met who love it. And who wants to be like semi-professional haughty naysayer Lindsay Ellis, whose currency is dislike of the fans and, because it makes things more interesting, cynicism about Miranda himself. Now I thought only the British could do that to one of their own.

Speaking of Brits, Andrew Garfield reveals considerable chops as he sings his way through the film. Larson negotiates friends and lovers as he tries to get a musical—based on Orwell’s 1984 but not licensed—and meets many who either stand in his way or are actively encouraging, such as Stephen Sondheim who is played by Bradley Whitford.

This is a superbly visual, cinematic version of a stage show, and the “Swimming” sequence is everything I had told it would be. The story is about doing what you feel you have to do and not giving up, and if Larson hadn’t died it would maybe mean less. So, if you know nothing of the community around him or the phenomenon that he created, it’s going to land less portentously. Being slightly between knowing nothing about him and knowing all about him, maybe a lot of it passed me by.