tick, tick… BOOM! and the Larson Legacy
I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a “theatre kid.” Sure, I love Broadway musicals, I’ve watched the entirety of Glee about 7 times through, and I’ve been in numerous shows through high school, including but not limited to Grease, Beauty and the Beast, etc. Despite all of this incriminating evidence that I am a theatre kid, I think that I identify with being more obsessed with other sectors of pop culture more than theatre, like pop music artists, coming-of-age tv and movies, stuff like that. I like to think of myself as a kid who does theatre. I know a good amount of musical soundtracks and actors, but admittedly, I’m not as knowledgeable about Broadway pre-1980s, so I feel like I’m disqualified from that “theatre kid” title. But if there’s one Broadway topic that I know absolutely everything there is to know and love about, it’s the late composer and lyricist Jonathan Larson.
Jonathan Larson created the mega-hit musical RENT that defined a generation. In his own words, RENT’s aim was to “bring musical theater to the MTV generation.” The rock-opera is based on Puccini’s La Boheme, an Italian opera about love and loss in Bohemian Paris where tuberculosis is ravaging the town; RENT on the other hand is about the same but in 1980s New York, specifically the East Village, during the AIDS crisis. Because RENT dealt with such a contemporary crisis, a rock-musical fusion score, had a diverse cast, and LGBTQ+ characters, it was, and still is, heralded as one of the most progressive pieces of art in it’s time, and for opening doors in the Broadway industry over what stories can be told and how.
The mantra of the musical is “No day but today.” Since it’s main characters are struggling with issues like drug abuse, poverty, death, etc, the overarching theme of time is ever present throughout the show: exclaiming that there’s “no day but today” to give in to love, to take fear out of your life, and treat everyday like your last. And what other Larson work is all about time? His one-man rock monologue that came before RENT, “tick, tick… BOOM!”
As the title suggests, “tick, tick… BOOM!”, the one-man rock-monologue turned three-person stage show, is about the ticking of the clock that the main character Jon (himself) feels as his 30th birthday approaches. He is struggling to write a song for the musical he’s been working on for the past 8 years. So it’s a musical about writing a musical. And about the existential dread of growing up, accomplishing your dreams, dealing with life’s hardships, and passion for the creation of meaningful art. But what makes both of these works all the more poignant, is that Jonathan Larson didn't live to see the success of either.
Larson died suddenly of an aortic dissection alone in his apartment the night before the Off-Broadway premiere of RENT, he was only 36 years old. It is awfully spooky that someone whose work dealt with the existential dread of running out of time was given so little of it.
I can go on and on about how RENT has impacted my life, and how Jonathan’s life and legacy has been one of insane personal inspiration. When I’d perform in a show, and we’d do show circles (For all non-theatre folk: The entire cast holds hands, dedicates the show to somebody, and at the end everyone spins, it sounds weird but it’s fun) I was the random 15 year old that’d dedicated it to Jonathan Larson. One of my best friends painted the RENT logo on a jean jacket for me as a gift. I have the libretto and behind the scenes book, I own the CD, I’ve watched countless documentaries, TV-show performances, I have the movie, anything you can think of. I love and have loved Jonathan Larson’s body of work for so long and a huge part of my love comes from my immense, equal if not greater, appreciation for him and his story, his ambition, and love for his craft and life.
I used to feel so special and underground when I mentioned that Jonathan Larson was my personal inspiration, from non-theatre folk I’d get a “Who?” and from theatre-folk I’d have to endure the Gen-Z-I'm-too-cool-to-like-RENT conversations (that I’ve never understood, but we move). But now, in the year of 2021, that I’d call the Silver Age of Movie Musicals considering how many have been released, we are blessed with a movie adaptation of that little rock monologue, “tick, tick… BOOM!” directed by none other than Lin Manuel Miranda, creator of Hamilton and In the Heights, telling the autobiographical story of composer Jonathan Larson, before RENT. I’d love for everyone in the world to go watch and support the film, so I’ll refrain from revealing any major spoilers.
There’s a saying people use online when they really love and are anticipating a movie coming out, using the overwhelming response and praise of the Joaquin Phoenix-starring Joker film. They’ll say that “this movie is My Joker” to show that it is the one that they will be raving about and have been raving about for all time. All this to say: tick, tick… BOOM! is My Joker. I have been waiting and waiting for the time to come when Jonathan Larson’s story would be told beyond RENT, and beyond the theatre community, and the time is finally here.
If it wasn’t obvious, I loved the movie. Because Jonathan Larson feels like such a personal part of my life, it felt really personal to watch this movie. Andrew Garfield plays Jonathan Larson so well that I felt like I had to double-take to make sure it wasn’t really him. And the direction of the movie felt so spot-on, I don’t know if any one but Lin could have made this movie. You can feel his love for theatre and Larson so strongly that I wouldn't want it to be any other way.
The standout musical numbers were the opener “30/90,” performed by Andrew Garfield, Joshua Henry, and Vanessa Hudgens, that details the dread Jon feels turning 30 in the year 1990, “Therapy” which is concurrent with a fight with Larson’s girlfriend, and the resolution song “Why,” where Jon (Garfield) proclaims that despite the hardships that come along with art-making, that there are so many reasons as to why he knows that music is his calling in life. The former is just a stunning visual sequence, the direction and editing of the number is, for lack of better words, just so enjoyable? It’s angsty, it's joyful, it's catchy, it’s fun, it's just everything to me! And why lie, I am an Andrew Garfield stan and love anything he does, so his singing and dancing is just the best thing ever.
The second, “Therapy,” is performed by Vanessa Hudgens and Garfield, where their performance is cut back and forth from a scene in which Jon is fighting with his girlfriend, Susan, about where the priorities are in their relationship. I remember audibly gasping, smiling, and giggling in the theater when I saw this number for the first time. Their excellent vocals aside, the crazy good ACTING from Hudgens and Garfield in this number is just out of this world to me. How they were able to embody this kind of neurotic, zero to one hundred, insane number with just their arms and face is beyond me. It was truly one of, if not the greatest, acting-through-song moment I have seen in any recent movie musical (and there’s a bit of them!). Applause to them, 11/10, just great, great performances from the both of them.
And finally, the song “Why” that Garfield sings in an empty Delacorte Theatre (the Central Park stage where Shakespeare in the Park is usually performed) alone on a piano with soft, emotional vocals. Tears were definitely shed during the joint performance and montage of Jon and his friend Michael growing up. If you are any type of musical theatre fan, or Andrew Garfield fan, this is the one song I think you need to run to Spotify to stream immediately. It just solidifies Garfield’s performance as one of the best of 2021 (and I’m hoping that means his Oscar nomination is incoming!).
tick, tick… BOOM! was released on Netflix on November 19, but had a limited theatrical release for about a week prior. Being as big of a fan as I am, I knew I had to go see it in theaters. I actually almost went to Long Island to see it at Jon Larson’s alma mater Adelphi University, but the train ride alone back to Manhattan at midnight didn’t seem like a good choice. I watched it for the first time at the Paris Theater on November 11th at an early screening alone, because I felt like I needed to be by myself to experience it all in its glory with no shame of any judgement for my emotions. Safe to say I cried (sobbed) throughout the entire film. Then, I watched it again in the theater with my roommates, and once more in a theater with a talk-back from some of the cast. And yes, Andrew Garfield was there. Along with cast members Alexandra Shipp (Susan) and Robin de Jesus (Michael).
That talk-back was one of the most special experiences I have had in my time in New York to date. I've been thinking about one thing that Andrew Garfield said every day since I heard it.
To answer a question about how they connected with the soul of Jonathan Larson in order to portray his story with the utmost sincerity, Garfield, along with Shipp and De Jesus, referenced a spiritual nature that they felt throughout the entire process. Robin De Jesus said that he “felt church” for the first time in a long time being a part of this “very special” project. Garfield, then, being the one tasked with embodying this man, with a twinkle in his eye, slowly raised his mic to his mouth and said that he thought that Jon knew. That he knew that he only had so much time. That it was the reason he felt so consumed by the existential need to fill every second with something meaningful. That it was the reason he had to let Susan go (spoiler), he didn’t want to leave her and their possible kids fatherless. There was some sort of subconscious, intuitive part of Larson that was able to know this, and leave the world having delivered his magnum opus, RENT, as his contribution to the world.
Hearing Garfield say this made me (1) weep, and (2) think about Larson in a whole new way. It's kind of comforting to think that maybe there was at least one thing that could make any sense of Larson’s tragic death. I’d like to think that it’s true, because even now it's hard to make sense of his, or any young person’s, unexpected death. His story has consumed my life for so long, it has touched me and resonated with me (as a frequent existential crisis-haver myself) and it's both surreal and very cathartic for so much of the world to know it too. More than just the little niche group in the theatre community will get to know Larson, and wow, tick, tick… BOOM! is quite an amazing work of art to honor his legacy.
