Tick, Tick…Boom!

Film | 12A| ★★★★✩

Jewish composer and playwright Jonathan Larson had just turned 35 when he died suddenly from a brain aneurism on the morning of the off-Broadway preview for his critically acclaimed musical Rent. But before Rent, Larson had spent a huge portion of his twenties struggling to put the finishing touches on Superbia, a futuristic musical loosely based on George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984.

Larson’s struggle to complete his first musical is told in this new adaptation of Tick Tick…Boom!, his semi-autobiographical solo show which premiered in 1990. Directed by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda, this high octane production features a truly phenomenal turn by British actor Andrew Garfield as Larson — the actor who was born in California and brought up in Epsom Surrey and is Jewish on his father’s side. West Wing and Get Out star Bradley Whitford plays legendary composer and lyricist Stephen Sondheim, while Alexandra Shipp is exquisite as Susan, Larson’s long suffering girlfriend.

While a film adaptation about a musical based on a musical isn’t perhaps the easiest of sells, Miranda manages to bring his own natural flair to this undeniably touching and beautifully performed musical extravaganza. Just like Rent, Tick Tick…Boom! broaches a number of themes including artistic struggle, poverty and the AIDS epidemic which decimated a whole generation of young Broadway performers at the height of their careers. Miranda gives these people a voice and does it with commendable subtlety and impressive nuance.

Elevated by Alice Brooks’s sumptuous cinematography and Deborah Wheatley’s stunning art direction, the film does exactly what is expected from it by managing to capture a fleeting moment in time and the hopes and aspiration of an artist who would never get the experience his own success. And whilst not exactly without fault — some of the set ups do sadly feel more suited to the stage than to the big screen — Tick Tick…Boom! feels both timely and strangely nostalgic for a time where struggle paid off and dreams came true in the end

Overall all though, it is Garfield’s impeccable interpretation that sealed the deal for me. For those two hours he was on screen, he made me believe he was Jonathan Larson, which, let’s face it, is no mean feat.