‘Tick, Tick … Boom!’: A Musical Adapted from a Musical

New movie adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda “Tick, Tick… ​​Boom!” It is the musical version of “Rent” creator Jonathan Larson’s musical about writing musicals.

To be clear, it’s not the musical “Rent”. (Yes, our brains hurt too.)

Premiering in theaters November 12 and on Netflix November 19, “Tick, Tick… ​​Boom!” stars Larson (Andrew Garfield) and his efforts to find success in his late 20s. As the audience watches him struggle to write the retro-futuristic musical “Superbia,” they worry whether to choose a more traditional career.

To help you keep “Superbia” (Larson’s never produced musical) straight from “Tick, Tick…Boom!” (Larson’s autobiographical demonstration of writing “Superbia,” straight from “Tick, Tick… ​​Boom!”) We created this guide for the new movie that tells Larson’s story:

Who was Jonathan Larson?

The composer and playwright is best known as the creator of “Rent,” a musical based on Puccini’s 1896 opera “La Bohème.”

However, Larson never saw the huge success of his rock opera, which won four Tony Awards. The composer died unexpectedly of an aortic aneurysm at the age of 35 in 1996 – the morning before the first Off-Broadway preview of “Rent” and a few months before its Broadway debut.

“Rent” was not his first musical, however, and was shaped in many ways by an autobiographical show he wrote about his struggle to write “Superbia,” which he also wrote.

What was “Superbia”?

No aspiring playwright lives in the lap of luxury in New York City, but Larson’s excavations have been particularly challenging. He lived and worked in a fifth-floor apartment in lower Manhattan, in an apartment with no heating and no heating. bathtub in the kitchen that he shared it with two roommates and a few cats. She would write eight hours on her days off from the weekend work waiting desks at the Moondance Diner in SoHo.

The musical he was working on was “Superbia” (based on George Orwell’s dystopian novel “1984”, although the rights were denied). He has won a number of grants and awards to continue writing the show, including the Richard Rodgers Development Grant headed by Stephen Sondheim, who paid for a workshop production at Playwrights Horizons in 1988.

But effort did not equal success. According to a 1996 article by Anthony Tommasini in The New York Times, although the music and lyrics were highly praised among some urban theater folks, the show was considered too big and too negative, and no producer was prepared to take on it.

So, Larson decided to do a monologue.

“Tick, Tick… ​​Boom!” where? Enter?

Unable to let go of the failure of “Superbia,” Larson began working on a new musical, “Rent,” and another idea: an autobiographical “rock monologue” about his struggles while writing “Superbia.” It was originally called “30/90” – because he was turning 30 in 1990 – and then “Boho Days”, then “Tick, Tick…Boom!” It will be a one-man show. It was first staged in 1990 in a workshop at the Second Stage Theatre, starring Larson. The show – part performance-art monologue, part rock recital – fascinated a young producer named Jeffrey Seller, who was a champion of Larson’s work and later convinced his producer friends to bring “Rent” to Broadway.

But the “Boho Days” were hard to get over: Larson had to nail long monologues, often playing several characters; sing musical numbers that represent multiple points of view; and he also accompanies himself on the piano and conducts his band with a combination of pop, rock and Sondheim pastiche.

Tommasini told the show as an “intense, angry solo” where a man “wakes up on his 30th birthday, ate some junk food, and complained about his frustrated ambitions for 45 minutes, turned 30 in the 90s, and so much more”.

After the workshop, Larson captioned the title “Tick, Tick…Boom!” continued to review the piece, including changing it to – a reference to the hour he felt was constantly working on his life and career – and presented it at the New York Theater Workshop in 1992 and 1993. It was still under construction when he died in 1996 and left it behind. at least five versions of the script and lots of playlists.

How did the solo show become a three-person musical?

After Larson’s death in 1996, playwright David Auburn, who won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for “Proof,” revised the show into a three-person chamber ensemble that lessened the burden on the actor playing Jon. Two additional actors now play Larson’s advertising best friend Michael and his dancer girlfriend Susan, each playing various supporting roles. The songs were rearranged for three voices, although the music and lyrics remained Larson’s.

Courtesy of Larson’s family, Auburn also cut out many of Larson’s references to his fear of aging and feeling under so much pressure that his heart was about to burst in his chest, which could only seem emotionless given the viewer’s knowledge. the fate of the composer.

Revised “Tick, Tick… ​​Boom!” It premiered Off Broadway at the Jane Street Theater in 2001 and has had a West End production, an Off West End production, two Off Broadway revivals in 2014 and 2016, and an American national tour.

Reviews were positive, New York Times critic Ben Brantley Note that there are songs “Sparkle with hints of urgency and wit” that give irresistible impetus to the musical note of “Rent”.

Miranda, who found success with “In the Heights” but has yet to release her hit hit “Hamilton,” played Jon in a revived performance in New York City Center in 2014. bone-deep sense of identity. ”

Isherwood pointed out It had not been long since Miranda had “taught high school English while scribbling songs”, trying to make her a musical theater composer.

How does the movie adapt all of this?

Twenty years after seeing “Tick, Tick…Boom!” animated Off Broadway. As a 21-year-old theater professional struggling to write “In the Heights,” Miranda directed the new film adaptation of the musical “Superbia” by a young composer named Jon, set in the eight chaotic days leading up to a workshop production. As with the Off Broadway revival, Larson’s rock monologue was expanded this time to a cast of more than a dozen characters. (Bradley Whitford now plays an encouraging Stephen Sondheim.) The movie features Jon Larson’s original staging of “Tick, Tick…Boom!” between performance. and the story unfolding in real time.

Miranda said the show is a combination of Larson’s rock monologue, the 2001 Off Broadway revival, and a cinematic exploration of Larson’s thought process. He used the Library of Congress archives to compose the soundtrack entirely using Larson’s music, both “Tick, Tick…Boom!” and the composer’s wider workspace.

Miranda: “It was like we were making an original musical with songs by Jonathan Larson” told Entertainment Weeklyexplains the process as finding the best way to “unlock” songs and stories.

Did Larson feel the urgency of his job? Sometimes if we quote a “Rent” anthem, it seems to understand “There was no other day than today” to do it.