Tick, Tick…Boom! is a musical biopic that premiered on Netflix last year and was directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton, Encanto). It’s a gorgeously realized story about the life of Jonathan Larson and his journey to writing a successful stage musical. For those not super familiar with theatre, Larson was the mind behind the hit Broadway musical Rent. Tick, Tick…Boom! stars Andrew Garfield as Larson, alongside Vanessa Hudgens, Alexandra Shipp, Joshua Henry and Robin de Jesus.
From the showstopping musical numbers to the vivid imagery and perfect casting, Tick, Tick…Boom! is the ultimate tribute to Larson, his work and serves as a love letter to Broadway in general. However, when the movie premiered, several people may not have known the musical was based on a true story. So what is the true story, anyway?
The Real Life Jonathan Larson
Tick, Tick...Boom! is a biographical movie musical based on the stage play of the same name created by Jonathan Larson in 1991. The movie brings the stage musical to life but also follows Larson as he works to make it as a playwright in NYC. Larson isn't just a character created for the sake of the movie, though. He's played by Andrew Garfield on screen — who does an amazing job, by the way — but Larson was actually a real person.
He was a composer, lyricist and playwright who created Superbia, Rent and Tick, Tick...Boom! — though Rent and Tick, Tick...Boom! are his most famous works. Larson took great inspiration from his favorite rock musicians like The Doors, The Who, Billy Joel, Elton John, The Police, and The Beatles when writing his musicals, as well as musical theatre legends like Stephen Sondheim. Larson's work was uniquely rock-inspired, but it also addressed themes like multiculturalism, homophobia, poverty, life and death, and substance use disorder.
Though he didn't get to put out as much work as he may have hoped to, Larson's creations always had an autobiographical element to them, especially Tick, Tick...Boom! which was essentially just a rock monologue for Larson to perform solo with a piano and backing band. It touched on his feelings of rejection and disappointment following the not-so-great success of Superbia, getting older, stressing over achieving his dreams and goals, and navigating the life of a starving artist in NYC. ThoughTick, Tick...Boom! was originally intended as a solo piece; it was later adapted into a stage performance.
Tick, Tick...Boom! is a creative, thought-provoking work, but Rent is the true crown jewel in the Larson catalog. The rock musical is loosely based on Giacomo Puccini's opera La Boheme and tells the story of impoverished artists living in lower Manhattan who are struggling to survive and build a life with the HIV/AIDS crisis in the background. Rent had humble beginnings and started as a stage reading at the New York Theatre Workshop, but it grew and grew and had the potential to be a big stage performance. So after three years of editing and collaborating and polishing the musical for release, it was ready to debut, and would go on to become a worldwide sensation.
However, Larson never got to see Rent the way we know the show today, because he died the day before the first preview performance. It was found that he died due to undiagnosed Marfan syndrome, which can cause life-threatening heart issues like an aortic dissection. Following his death, there was a medical malpractice suit settled for an undisclosed amount, as New York medical examiners determined Larson would've lived if his condition were treated.
Creative Struggles
Tick, Tick...Boom! the movie is focused on Larson's creative journey — and struggles — trying to break into the theatre industry. There are a lot of movies out there about people moving out to LA or NYC to "make it" and it's always a struggle. Larson's story is no different.
It's 1990, and Larson (Garfield) is working at the Moondance Diner while he also prepares a workshop for his passion project Superbia. Larson's 30th birthday is a week away, and he describes this pressure he feels to reach some level of success before he turns 30, and he's convinced this Superbia workshop is his last chance at that. Some of his friends who used to work in theatre have since left for more stable, better-paying jobs and try to convince Larson to do the same, but he refuses to give up on his dreams, no matter how hard it gets.
Preparing for the workshop is extremely high-stress and only gets worse when he's told to write a new song for the show within a week. He's frustrated, stressed out, and drawing blanks on new material. Evenutally, he comes up with a new song and at the workshop — with his friends, family, industry professionals and even Stephen Sondheim in the audience — Superbia receives great praise, but unfortunately no one reaches out to Larson with plans to produce it. Obviously this stings. Superbia was his passion project and what he thought was his last chance at success before turning 30, and it didn't work out. While some parts of the movie may have been embellished for entertainment's sake, this was all based on true events.
The disappointment of Superbia led Larson to start working on Tick, Tick...Boom!, which was a success, and later led to Rent. The movie touches on the fear of running out of time and really drives home the point of being persistent when it comes to your goals and dreams, and learning to overcome creative struggles and roadblocks you may encounter along the way. That's essentially what Larson did, and it certainly paid off whether he was around to see his success or not.
Making Musical History
Although Larson didn't get to see Rent come to fruition, he achieved that success he spent all those years working toward. Following the show's Off-Broadway premiere, it was moved to Broadway's Nederlander Theatre on April 29, 1996. Rent was a massive hit. People loved the show so much, "Rent-heads" would camp outside the theatre to secure their discounted rush tickets for the show each night. The show won several awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and the Tony Award for Best Musical. Larson also posthumously received the Tony for Best Book of a Musical and Best Original Score, as well as the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music and Outstanding Lyrics.
Rent ran for 12 years, making it one of the longest-running shows on Broadway and grossed over $280 million. The show's success didn't just stay in NYC, though. It saw several national tours and foreign productions, as well as a movie adaptation in 2005 featuring the majority of the original cast.
Rent has had an undeniably large cultural impact — from the way it addresses themes like life, death, poverty and the AIDS crisis, to its moving music featuring well-loved songs like "Seasons of Love" and "La Vie Boheme." It also drastically changed the way a Broadway musical could sound. It's a high-energy rock musical, so it's wildly different from the way other well-known shows like Phantom of the Opera and Wicked sound. The music feels more like songs you'd hear on your local rock/alternative radio station, and it was unlike anything else out there at the time. It also paved the way for more rock acceptance on Broadway, leading to other shows like American Idiot, Rock of Ages and even School of Rock.
Tick, Tick...Boom! doesn't cover Larson's years of work on Rent, and because of both the movie's timeline and Larson's untimely death, there aren't any scenes showcasing the show's success and his reaction. However, there's a 2006 documentary titled No Day But Today: The Story of Rent, that's all about the musical from the early days of Larson's idea to his death, the success that came after the show's production, and both Rent and Larson's legacy in the theatre industry.