Tick, tick…Boom! also features several sequences of Jonathan Larson performing the titular rock monologue (complete with a band and collaborative singer in Vanessa Hudgens’ Karessa) that doubles as a hefty amount of exposition, simultaneously peeling back Jonathan’s state of mind throughout various personal matters that occur before presenting Superbia.
As Jonathan tries to balance his relationship with Susan (Alexandra Shipp, supportive but not afraid to give him a reality check), a former dancer contemplating accepting a new job that will move her from the West End of Soho New York to Berkshire, and cope with tragic illnesses and deaths of friends related to the AIDS crisis, the strain of finishing his play and making it to the big time is audibly realized with a ticking clock that becomes more pronounced as the story intensifies. It especially helps that the first song and dance number is a lively, existential but lighthearted musing on the terrors of aging without having much to show for the things one has sunk their life into. Naturally, anyone roughly in the same age group (for perspective, I’m 32 myself and found Jonathan’s dilemma of feeling that achieving his dreams has an expiration date to be instantly relatable) should be able to connect to the character immediately.
Directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda and written by Steven Levenson (with the former seemingly drawn to making this his debut feature due to its dealing with community, social politics, and dreamer protagonist), tick, tick…Boom! begins with Andrew Garfield’s interpretation of Rent creator Jonathan Larson in 1990, stressing out over his looming 30th birthday, which will be arriving while he is poor and hasn’t made a cent from musical theatre (apparently, he has been rejected by nearly everyone in the industry, although the great Stephen Sondheim, played here by Bradley Whitford, has offered words of encouragement for the aspiring artist), and hasn’t written a single lyric for a crucial second act song he needs to crank out before putting on a public presentation of his 5 or 8 years in the making heady sci-fi musical Superbia to be attended by important industry types.
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