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 ...