![]() ![]() ROBIN DE JESÚS as MICHAEL, MJ RODRIGUEZ as CAROLYN, BEN LEVI ROSS as FREDDY as FREDDY in tick, tick…BOOM! Photo credit: MACALL POLAY/NETFLIX © 2021.Īt the heart of the film is a touching, decades-long platonic friendship between Jon, who is straight, and Michael an amateur actor in his youth turned advertising executive, who happens to be gay. Among his circle of friends, whom Larson used as inspiration for characters in his posthumous hit Rent, are his close-knit diner colleagues Carolyn (a superb Mj Rodriguez) and Freddy (a soulful Ben Levi Ross). The staging of the song in Larson’s apartment is typical of the film’s natural and fluid movement between dialogue and its musical numbers. It’s an admirable dedication that will be relatable to many, convincingly conveyed by Garfield, and the joy that surrounds him when he does connect with the people in his life shines through in the blissfully catchy ensemble number Boho Days. We see him struggle to balance his work with devoting time to his relationship with his girlfriend Susan (a captivating Alexandra Shipp)-who is contemplating leaving the city behind along with her dreams of being a dancer to become a teacher in rural Massachusetts-while holding down his day job waiting tables at the Moondance Diner, and unintentionally neglecting his closest friend Michael (Robin de Jesús) when he needs him most. Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson and Alexandra Shipp as Susan in TICK, TICK…BOOM! Photo Credit: Macall Polay/NETFLIX © 2021. Not only is this bad timing-as he attempts to conjure a final song for Superbia’s female lead, to be performed by Karessa (Vanessa Hudgens in fine voice)-but it also serves as a metaphor for the way he is so consumed by his artistic pursuit that he has little time for anything else in his life. ![]() As he stays razor focused on preparing for the event, workshopping by day and writing by night, the lights go out around him when his apartment’s power is cut off on the eve of the showcase. We meet Larson just days before a showcase performance for potential producers of his, as it turns out, prophetic futuristic musical, Superbia, where folks spend their days absorbed by watching the lives of the elite play out like a TV show on their media devices. Yet to see his work produced, he’s plagued by thoughts of the early in life success of musical theatre artists such as his hero Stephen Sondheim, and can already hear the notes of Happy Birthday beginning to mockingly loom over him and time ticking away until he turns 30 in 1990, leading to one of the film’s urgent, thumping rock musical numbers 30/90, beautifully performed by with an agitated gusto by Garfield. ![]() Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson, in TICK, TICK…BOOM! Photo Credit: Macall Polay/NETFLIX © 2021.Īndrew Garfield plays Larson as his twenties are rapidly coming to a close. ![]() Miranda’s impressive feature directorial debut, adapted from the autobiographical musical by the late Rent composer and writer Jonathan Larson, is an invigorating, life-affirming, and deeply moving hymn both to musical theatre and more broadly to all creative people, as well as a celebration of Larson’s life and legacy. After over a year of binging Netflix in my tiny East Village apartment it felt a little Alanis Morissette ironic that my first trip to a Broadway theatre since last March wasn’t to see a live theatre production, but for the New York premiere of a Netflix film, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s tick, tick…BOOM! As it turned out, it made for a perfect return to theatreland. ![]()
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