ERIN MOSHER
Special to The Leader
The tell-tale life of Tony award-winner Jonathon Larson, as told and adapted by director Lin-Manuel Miranda, was released onto Netflix Nov. 19, 2021. Andrew Garfield portrays Larson perfectly to all extremities, from the personality to the same love of music and work.
Miranda said in an interview with Variety magazine, “It’s about failure. It’s not the story of the genius who made rent writing ‘Rent.’”
“Tick…Tick…BOOM!,” based on the musical of the same name, tells the life story of “Rent” composer, Jonathan Larson and the week leading up to his workshop and his 30 birthday.
The musical is delivered as a monologue through songs written by Larson himself as he shares his life’s journey thus far with everyone. Larson faces the difficult reality of whether or not he chose the right career path and continuing with his passion in musical theatre.
As a viewer, you get to see all the hardships he went through with his career and personal life.
By 35, Larson achieved his first big success with the musical “Rent,” first put on stage.
On the morning of Jan. 25, 1996, Larson died, which happened to be the same night as the first “Rent” preview performance off-Broadway. He never got to see his work put on or the legacy that was created following the musical.
With the movie being told within a week’s span of time, it shows the ups and downs of living in New York City as an unaccomplished playwright. While Larson was about to start writing the song for his female character in “Superbia,” his power was shut off.
The film highlights what was going on in the 1990s in New York City and everywhere else — the AIDS epidemic. “Larson saw how AIDS was affecting the people close to him, I think that is why he wrote ‘Rent’ in the first place, to bring awareness to AIDS,” said Nikki Indelicato, a senior journalism major.
Larson had very close friends that contracted the unfortunate disease, including his best friend Michael. It was hard on Larson to hear that Michael became sick, as they have been friends almost their whole life.
Just days before Larson found out that his best friend tested HIV positive, U.S. Sen. Jessie Helms held a speech on television that Larson tuned into. Helms said, “Let me say that if IV drug users and homosexual men would stop their activites today, there would never be another case of AIDS in this country other than the ones already in progress.”
This quote sparked Larson to write “the boss is wrong as rain,” which can be found as a lyric in his song “Louder Than Words.”
The music is the icing on the cake. Larson truly is a musical genius. “30/90” and “Therapy” are very fun songs to sing along to.
The movie opens up with Larson sitting at the piano singing “30/90,” which Larson wrote about turning 30 in 1990 and not having accomplished anything, which ironically is a quick synopsis of the movie. The lyrics, “They’re singing ‘Happy Birthday’ you just want to lay down and cry. Not just another birthday, it’s 30/90,” encapsulates the never-ending sadness that he will continue to feel as he grows older.
“I also fell in love with the song, ‘Johnny Can’t Decide.’ I just think it was really neat that Jonathon Larson was able to successfully write basically his whole life story all into the musical, with the songs seamlessly through it,” said Indelicato.
I watched this movie so many times — I love it. I listen to the movie constantly. I give the film a 10/10, the casting was spectacular and the music was lovely. I recommend this movie to anyone who loves musicals, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Andrew Garfield.