tick, tick, Boom (2021)

This is part musical and part docudrama about making a musical. It is based on an autobiographical one-man show of the same name by Jonathan Larson, the astonishingly talented writer/composer of the fabulously successful Broadway show “Rent”. He is played by Andrew Garfield, an amazingly versatile actor in his own right. It is also a tribute, and an expression of gratitude, for the almost baton-like passage of support from those who Larson describes as a vanishing species, the creators of musical theater. Larson’s thanks include the foremost musical theater artist of the 20th century, Stephen Sondheim, an early mentor. One review that I read stated that Sondheim was passing along the help he received from another Broadway titan, Oscar Hammerstein. The movie is also a thanks to Larson from director Lin-Manuel Miranda, who might be seen as his successor. Miranda, who starred as Larson in a theatrical performance of this play, directs the film with a deep understanding of the passion, struggle, and ebullience of an artist committed to an art form that requires a lot of money and a lot of other people to be brought to life. This film is explicitly theatrical, going back and forth between Larson’s story and his one-man show telling the story, which tragically ended with his preventable death right before his Broadway debut.