“I want to change the landscape of American Musical Theater,” he wrote in his 2004 Jonathan Larson grant essay application that he wound up not receiving.ĭespite the rejection, it turned out ok. It’s what gave him the drive to push forward with his own musicals about the topics he knew best. Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson in tick, tick…BOOM! Photo from Netflix.įor Miranda, seeing Jonathan Larson’s RENT at 17 years old was life-changing. On the morning of the first public off-Broadway performance of RENT at the New York Theatre Workshop, Larson died of an aortic aneurysm at 35. Parallel to themes in tick, tick…BOOM!, Larson’s internal clock stopped. It became the masterpiece musical he dreamed of creating, but tragically never got to see its success. Most artists’ stories are about the inevitable success that you have after a series of obstacles,” he explained.Ī few years later, after getting advice to “write what he knows,” Larson penned a musical closer to the heart about living through the AIDS epidemic. Levenson feels the plot is unlike many biographical stories that are told on screen. What audiences see on screen is Jonathan’s determination to get his science-fiction musical Superbia off the ground, only to be crushed when it doesn’t. “The thing that I love about tick, tick…BOOM! more than anything is that it’s the story of a failure,” noted Levenson, who also wrote Dear Evan Hansen. He feels as though he’s running out of time to write a hit musical, especially since his idol, Stephen Sondheim (played brilliantly by Bradley Whitford), wrote the lyrics for Broadway’s West Side Story at 25 years old. Tick, tick…BOOM! centers around a composer also named Jonathan as the clock ticks closer to his 30th birthday. “Without RENT, none of it would be possible,” said Steven Levenson, who wrote the screenplay for Larson’s semi-autobiographical movie musical. It’s because of Larson we now have Lin-Manuel Miranda’s revolutionary hip-hop musicals like In the Heights and Hamilton. The White Plains, New York Jewish composer’s music and lyrics changed the landscape for the next generation of aspiring artists. In 1996, composer Jonathan Larson shattered Broadway barriers with his groundbreaking pop-rock musical, RENT. “I was in perpetual fear of being recast, which is usually what an actor feels until they feel like they are finding their feet,” Andrew Garfield told Broadway Direct over zoom about the beginning stages of becoming Jonathan Larson for the movie tick, tick…BOOM!, now streaming on Netflix and in select theaters. It was not until he wanted to impress Lin-Manuel Miranda in order to play a pivotal role in a movie musical that defines a generation. But he was never in a musical, nor could he sing. He’s even won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Prior Walter in Angels in America.

Andrew Garfield’s been on Broadway before.

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