Speaking from personal experience, making a living from being an artist is excruciatingly difficult, and for every success story there are a hundred failures. Spending a year or more of your life working on something you have poured every ounce of your soul into, only to show it to people who you hope will fund the continued development and eventual production of the work and for them to say that they don’t see the masses enjoying it is one of the worst feelings I’ve ever known.
So, to say that Tick, Tick…Boom! resonated with me is an understatement, and I think anyone who has ever tried to create something will feel a deep personal connection with this film.
Based on the true story of playwright Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield), Tick, Tick…Boom! follows Larson in the lead up to his thirtieth birthday where he has finally landed a workshop for his new musical Supurbia. The only problem is that despite working on this show for almost a decade he still hasn’t started writing one of the musical numbers, and it needs to be ready in just a few days. So, whilst Larson struggles with this creative block, his girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp) announces that she will be moving across the country for a new job, his best friend Michael (Robin de Jesús) tries persuading him to find a more stable job, and various other factors of Larson’s life begin to spiral out of control. As Larson faces this quarter life crisis, he must decide whether to sink or swim as he makes the biggest gamble of his life.
So, to say that Tick, Tick…Boom! resonated with me is an understatement, and I think anyone who has ever tried to create something will feel a deep personal connection with this film.
Based on the true story of playwright Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield), Tick, Tick…Boom! follows Larson in the lead up to his thirtieth birthday where he has finally landed a workshop for his new musical Supurbia. The only problem is that despite working on this show for almost a decade he still hasn’t started writing one of the musical numbers, and it needs to be ready in just a few days. So, whilst Larson struggles with this creative block, his girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp) announces that she will be moving across the country for a new job, his best friend Michael (Robin de Jesús) tries persuading him to find a more stable job, and various other factors of Larson’s life begin to spiral out of control. As Larson faces this quarter life crisis, he must decide whether to sink or swim as he makes the biggest gamble of his life.
Despite loving musical theatre, I’m not particularly well versed on it. So, I didn’t really know who Jonathan Larson was, nor did I know that he created one of the most beloved musicals ever, Rent, and I also did not know that he died aged thirty-five, the night before Rent premiered. Thankfully, Tick, Tick, Boom! establishes all of this in the opening few minutes for those as unfamiliar as I am. What transpires is a tale of perseverance, inspiration, and ultimately heartbreak as the theatre industry loses one of its most promising new talents.
What often turns a lot of people off musicals is that people will occasionally just break into song and dance for seemingly no reason and unless you’re just willing to go with that then they’re definitely an acquired taste. Personally, I love musicals so I’ve never had this problem, but I will say that Tick, Tick…Boom! may present an easier entry for those that struggle with musicals because of how the musical numbers occur. It’s one of two things which is explicitly communicated, either the musical number is actually happening in real life (because the film is about the making of a musical after all) so people breaking out into song and dance makes sense because they are actually doing that for the purpose of making Superbia, or it’s Jonathan’s thought process, so the sudden shift into musical territory is fantastical and larger than life because it’s all inside his head because that’s how his brain works as a creator of musicals. This may not work for everyone, but I feel it does at least provide context for every single musical number as to why people drop everything to suddenly burst into song which tends to be why people who aren’t keen on musicals tend not to like them.
The real attraction of Tick, Tick…Boom! though is Andrew Garfield and his really rather superb leading performance. Whilst there is certainly a difference between film acting and stage acting, I feel that the way Tick, Tick…Boom! tends to fall into trappings of stage performance (again, because it’s about the making of a musical) and Garfield manages to seamlessly perform to an audience as well as to camera. He’s entirely convincing in his physical presence, to the point that it doesn’t feel like a performance. Yet at the same time each line of dialogue, every note of a song, and every action he takes is larger than life, bold, and completely captivating. You can tell he’s having a great time making this film, and that goes a long way in pulling you as an audience member in and allowing you to see the world through his eyes.
I also thought Alexandra Shipp was great for the short time she spent on screen. She’s a really important character in the story and yet she isn’t in the film for all that long, but because of how good her performance is, and the kind of chemistry she and Garfield have together she does manage to become this overbearing presence even when she isn’t there.
What often turns a lot of people off musicals is that people will occasionally just break into song and dance for seemingly no reason and unless you’re just willing to go with that then they’re definitely an acquired taste. Personally, I love musicals so I’ve never had this problem, but I will say that Tick, Tick…Boom! may present an easier entry for those that struggle with musicals because of how the musical numbers occur. It’s one of two things which is explicitly communicated, either the musical number is actually happening in real life (because the film is about the making of a musical after all) so people breaking out into song and dance makes sense because they are actually doing that for the purpose of making Superbia, or it’s Jonathan’s thought process, so the sudden shift into musical territory is fantastical and larger than life because it’s all inside his head because that’s how his brain works as a creator of musicals. This may not work for everyone, but I feel it does at least provide context for every single musical number as to why people drop everything to suddenly burst into song which tends to be why people who aren’t keen on musicals tend not to like them.
The real attraction of Tick, Tick…Boom! though is Andrew Garfield and his really rather superb leading performance. Whilst there is certainly a difference between film acting and stage acting, I feel that the way Tick, Tick…Boom! tends to fall into trappings of stage performance (again, because it’s about the making of a musical) and Garfield manages to seamlessly perform to an audience as well as to camera. He’s entirely convincing in his physical presence, to the point that it doesn’t feel like a performance. Yet at the same time each line of dialogue, every note of a song, and every action he takes is larger than life, bold, and completely captivating. You can tell he’s having a great time making this film, and that goes a long way in pulling you as an audience member in and allowing you to see the world through his eyes.
I also thought Alexandra Shipp was great for the short time she spent on screen. She’s a really important character in the story and yet she isn’t in the film for all that long, but because of how good her performance is, and the kind of chemistry she and Garfield have together she does manage to become this overbearing presence even when she isn’t there.
Of course, a musical is only as good as its musical numbers and Tick, Tick…Boom! also delivers there. From the opening number of ‘30/90’ through to the closing ‘Louder Than Words’ the film delivers toe tapping songs and some great sequences to go along with them. My personal favourite was probably ‘Swimming’ which coincidentally represents Tick, Tick…Boom!’s grand revelatory song in the second act, the exact same kind of song that Larson is stuck on writing for Superbia.
If you like musicals you’ll have a great time with Tick, Tick…Boom!, but that really goes without saying considering how it’s a musical about the creation of a musical by what many would consider to be one of the great modern musical theatre directors. What really matters is that whether Tick, Tick…Boom! can win over non-musical audiences and honestly, I think it has the ability to do just that. With its clever contextualisation of the musical numbers, as well as Garfield’s amazing performance, I do think that people who don’t normally digest a lot of musicals will walk away from Tick, Tick…Boom! with a positive impression. It’s certainly not the best musical I’ve ever seen, but it absolutely is one I can see myself rewatching every few years and really enjoying every time I do.
If you like musicals you’ll have a great time with Tick, Tick…Boom!, but that really goes without saying considering how it’s a musical about the creation of a musical by what many would consider to be one of the great modern musical theatre directors. What really matters is that whether Tick, Tick…Boom! can win over non-musical audiences and honestly, I think it has the ability to do just that. With its clever contextualisation of the musical numbers, as well as Garfield’s amazing performance, I do think that people who don’t normally digest a lot of musicals will walk away from Tick, Tick…Boom! with a positive impression. It’s certainly not the best musical I’ve ever seen, but it absolutely is one I can see myself rewatching every few years and really enjoying every time I do.