Tick, Tick... Boom! (also stylized as tick, tick... BOOM!) is a 2021 American biographical musical drama film directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda in his feature directorial debut. Written by Steven Levenson, who also serves as an executive producer, it is based on the stage musical of the same name by Jonathan Larson, a semi-autobiographical story about Larson writing a musical to enter into the theater industry. The film stars Andrew Garfield as Larson, alongside Robin de Jesús, Alexandra Shipp, Joshua Henry, Judith Light, and Vanessa Hudgens.
Tick, Tick... Boom! had its world premiere at the AFI Fest on November 10, 2021, and began a limited theatrical release two days later, before streaming on Netflix on November 19. The film received positive reviews for Garfield's performance, the editing, and Miranda's direction. It was named one of the best films of 2021 by the American Film Institute, and was nominated for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy at the 79th Golden Globe Awards, Best Picture at the 27th Critics' Choice Awards, as well as Best Film Editing at the 94th Academy Awards. For his performance, Garfield won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, and was nominated as Best Actor for the Academy Award, Actor Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role, and Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actor.
Plot
In 1992, Jonathan Larson performs his rock monologue Tick, Tick... Boom! at New York Theatre Workshop, accompanied by friends Roger and Karessa. He describes a constant ticking noise he hears in his head and begins to tell the story of the events leading to his 30th birthday. An unseen narrator explains the film is the true story of Larson, "except for the parts Jonathan made up."
In early 1990, Jonathan juggles work at the Moondance Diner in SoHo while preparing for a workshop of his musical and passion project Superbia. He feels pressure to be successful before he turns 30: with his birthday just over a week away, he sees the workshop as his last chance ("30/90"). Jonathan has a party at home with friends, including his former roommate Michael, his girlfriend Susan, and fellow waiters Freddy and Carolyn ("Boho Days"). Susan tells Jonathan about a teaching job at Jacob's Pillow and asks him to come. Michael, who previously left theater for a lucrative advertising career ("No More"), sees Susan's offer as an opportunity for Jonathan to consider a serious future and invites Jonathan to join an advertising focus group at his company. Jonathan's producer Ira asks him to write a new song for Superbia because the story needs it. This troubles him, as his idol Stephen Sondheim told him the same at a composing workshop some years ago ("LCD Readout"), but he can't come up with anything, and he only has a week.
Jonathan's anxieties over the workshop and Michael and Susan's offers ("Johnny Can't Decide") are compounded when he learns from Carolyn that Freddy, who is HIV-positive, has been hospitalized ("Sunday"). He chooses to prioritize the workshop ("Sextet Montage"), which leads to trouble in his personal life: Susan, frustrated by Jonathan's indecisiveness and obsession with his career, breaks up with him ("Therapy"), and he angers Michael when he deliberately sabotages the focus group. Michael accuses him of wasting the privilege to have a life with the person he loves—something Michael cannot do as a gay man in the AIDS crisis—for the sake of a financially unstable theater career. After receiving an encouraging call from his agent, Rosa, Jonathan tries to write the new song the night before the workshop, but his power gets cut off. He heads to a swimming pool to vent his frustrations before finally coming up with the new song ("Swimming").
At the workshop are friends, family, and industry professionals, including Sondheim ("Come to Your Senses"). Jonathan receives praise but no offers to produce Superbia. Rosa gives him a reality check that it will likely never be produced due to the content and production needs, so he must try again and hope something will stick, encouraging him to write about what he knows. Discouraged, Jonathan begs Michael for a corporate job, but Michael, having changed his mind after seeing the workshop, urges Jonathan to continue in musical theater, revealing he is HIV-positive ("Real Life"). Realizing that his career obsession has cost him Susan and harmed his friendship with Michael, Jonathan wanders through New York before finding himself at the Delacorte Theater. He finds a piano and reflects on his friendship with Michael and the sacrifices he must make for his career ("Why"). He and Michael reconcile.
On the morning of Jonathan's 30th birthday, Sondheim calls, congratulating him and wanting to talk more about Superbia, lifting his spirits. Holding his birthday party at the Moondance Diner, he is relieved to hear Freddy will be discharged from the hospital. Susan gifts him a blank sheet music book to help in his career, and they part on amicable terms. She narrates that his next project was Tick, Tick... Boom! before he returned to working on a previous project, which became Rent. Susan's narration reveals that Jonathan died of a sudden aortic dissection the night before Rent began previews Off-Broadway. She laments that though Rent brought the success Jonathan desired, he never got to experience it for himself, nor did he get to say everything he wanted to in his writing. In 1992, Jonathan performs the final song from Tick, Tick... Boom! as he optimistically looks to the future ("Louder Than Words").
Cast Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson Alexandra Shipp as Susan Wilson, Jonathan's girlfriend, a former dancer (based on Janet Charleston) Robin de Jesús as Michael, Jonathan's best friend, who quit acting for an advertising career (based on Matt O'Grady) Vanessa Hudgens as Karessa Johnson, Jonathan's friend and a performer in Superbia and Tick, Tick... Boom! Joshua Henry as Roger Bart, Jonathan's friend and a performer in Superbia and Tick, Tick... Boom! Jonathan Marc Sherman as Ira Weitzman, Head of Musical Theatre at Playwrights Horizons and the producer of the Superbia workshop Michaela Jaé Rodriguez as Carolyn, a fellow waitress at the Moondance Diner and Jonathan's friend Ben Levi Ross as Freddy, a fellow waiter at the Moondance Diner and Jonathan's friend Judith Light as Rosa Stevens, Jonathan's agent (based on Flora Roberts) Bradley Whitford as Stephen Sondheim The real Sondheim voices the answering machine message near the end of the film. Laura Benanti as Judy Wright, the head of the advertising focus group Danielle Ferland as Kim, a member of the advertising focus group Micaela Diamond as Peggy, a member of the advertising focus group Utkarsh Ambudkar as Todd, a member of the advertising focus group Gizel Jimenez as Cristin, a performer in the Superbia workshop Kate Rockwell as Lauren, a performer in the Superbia workshop Aneesa Folds as Danya, a performer in the Superbia workshop Joel Perez as Lincoln, a performer in the Superbia workshop Judy Kuhn as "Nan" (Nanette Larson), Jonathan's mother Danny Burstein as "Al" (Allan Larson), Jonathan's father Lauren Marcus as Donna, Jonathan's friend and videographer (based on Victoria Leacock Hoffman) Richard Kind as Walter Bloom, the head of the musical theater workshop Tariq Trotter as H.A.W.K. Smooth, a street rapper and working actor Ryan Vasquez as Scott, a friend of Roger's that he invites to Jonathan's party Joanna P. Adler as Molly, a Strand Bookstore clerk Jelani Alladin as David, Michael's partner Shockwave as a Building Doorman
Cameos New York Theatre Workshop artistic director James C. Nicola and Roger Bart make credited appearances as "featured diners" at the Moondance Diner in the background of the opening scene. Both knew and worked with the real Larson: Nicola was in charge of New York Theatre Workshop at the time of the film's events and helped program Rent, while Bart was a close friend and frequent collaborator who contributed backing vocals to the original rock-monologue version of Tick, Tick... Boom!. The character "Roger", played by Joshua Henry, is loosely inspired by Bart.
The song "Sunday" features cameos from André De Shields, Bebe Neuwirth, Beth Malone, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Chita Rivera, Chuck Cooper, Howard McGillin, Joel Grey, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Phillipa Soo, Phylicia Rashad, and Bernadette Peters. It also prominently features Adam Pascal, Daphne Rubin-Vega, and Wilson Jermaine Heredia as homeless bums: all three were original cast members of the Broadway production of Rent, which was also written by Larson. Rubin-Vega's costume includes a pair of shoes she wore onstage in the original production of Rent, and a black hoodie which once belonged to Larson. Director Miranda also cameos as a cook at the Moondance Diner during the scene.
The musical theater workshop scene includes cameos by various established theater composers and lyricists as "aspiring composers and lyricists", including Alex Lacamoire, Amanda Green, Chad Beguelin, Jaime Lozano, Dave Malloy, Eisa Davis, Georgia Stitt, Grace McLean, Helen Park, Jason Robert Brown, Jeanine Tesori, Joe Iconis, Marc Shaiman, Matthew Sklar, Nick Blaemire, Quiara Alegría Hudes, Shaina Taub, Stephen Schwartz, Stephen Trask, screenwriter Steven Levenson, and Tom Kitt. Blaemire previously portrayed Jonathan Larson in the 2016 Off-Broadway revival of Tick, Tick... Boom!. Green, Beguelin, Malloy, Iconis, Sklar, and Taub are all previous recipients of the Jonathan Larson Grant for aspiring composers.
Several members of Miranda's hip-hop improv group Freestyle Love Supreme have roles throughout the film: besides Aneesa Folds and Utkarsh Ambudkar, Shockwave and Andrew "JellyDonut" Bancroft appear in "No More", and Christopher Jackson appears as a patron at the New York Theatre Workshop performance of Tick, Tick... Boom!. Miranda's father Luis A. Miranda Jr. cameos as a building concierge in "No More." Additionally, Janet Dacal, Kenita Miller, Eddy Lee and Jared Loftin appear as performers in the Superbia workshop. Although Whitford portrays Sondheim onscreen, Sondheim voices himself when he leaves a message on Jonathan's voicemail, as he does in the original musical. Miranda's wife Vanessa Nadal voices "Deborah", Susan's friend who calls Jonathan towards the beginning of the film about equipment for Susan's dance show. Anna Louizos, who designed the set for the 2001 Off-Broadway run of Tick, Tick... Boom!, and her wife Robyn Goodman, who co-produced the run and was friends with the real Larson, play Michelle and Gay respectively, Jonathan's neighbors who attend his party. Among the audience members in the final scene are Scott Schwartz, the director of the 2001 Off-Broadway production of Tick, Tick... Boom!, and Julie Larson, Larson's sister.
Anthony Rapp, Idina Menzel, and Fredi Walker-Browne appear via archive footage of the original production of Rent. Archival footage of the Japanese and Cuban productions are also used, the latter sourced from the 2019 documentary Revolution Rent.
A prop playbill for the workshop mentions Jace Alexander, Michael Lindsay, and Marin Mazzie as members of the cast. All three knew and worked with the real Larson, Alexander through the Naked Angels, Lindsay from their days at Adelphi University and at several Superbia workshops, and Mazzie as a Superbia cast member and collaborator on her and Larson's cabaret act "J. Glitz." It is not clear, however, if any of the performers in the onscreen workshop are actually meant to be these actors. These mentions could be considered memorials; by the time this movie was filmed, Mazzie and Lindsay had died, and though Alexander was still alive, he had not had a professional career since pleading guilty to charges relating to child pornography.
Production Background