Tick, Tick … Boom! 2021
I've heard of Rent and have always wanted to see it, but never have. I didn’t know the story of Jonathan Larson until Lin-Manuel Miranda was promoting this movie on a talk show. This movie isn’t about Rent, but lets you know that it is coming soon. Instead this movie is about Larson writing a different musical that he worked on for years, burning what seemed like every drop of wax from the candle to make it happen. This story was told in a staged musical monologue that he wrote next, called Tick, Tick… Boom! Thankfully, the movie isn’t just a guy ranting and singing his guts out for two hours on a spare stage. Instead most of that story is fleshed out into a real movie, but the manic energy and stress of Larson’s story is never far from the surface of Andrew Garfield’s performance. That performance is probably genuine, but also a great example of theater people run amok, and so a little off putting (as is Miranda’s gushing personality when he talks about it). Still, there is a good story here and a few of the songs are quite good, though most of them are more bouncy than compelling. Ultimately you know he will have incredible success, but will die before he can enjoy it. It is nice that Stephen Sondheim plays a role in the story since he just recently passed away. And it fits in well with the times since it is also a tribute to theater and to New York at a time when that has been closed due to Covid and is just now reopening. So the movie is a nice experience, a little overly theatrical and energetic, but a good story about a budding success and what a punishing road that can be.
Written: 17 Dec 2021