WHAT TO WEAR TO A MOVIE PREMIERE The cast of “Tick, Tick … Boom!” with Lin-Manuel Miranda (second from left) at the premiere. Judith Light — in the white gown and evening coat (on the far right) — had to look fabulous that night because she was so deglammed in the role of Rosa the agent.
IT’S JAN 26, 1990. Signs with pink triangles and the words Silence = Death are posted everywhere. The computer monitors look like something from the early days of the Industrial Revolution. Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield) still hasn’t written an important song for his leading lady for the workshop presentation of his new musical.
That workshop means important producers are going to see it for the first time. Larson is turning 30 a few days after that, which means his youth is over. And his girlfriend really needs to talk to him.
“Tick, Tick … Boom!” — the musical that Larson (1960-96) wrote about writing his musical “Superbia” before he wrote “Rent,” which became the hugest Off Broadway hit of 1996 and then ran 12 years on Broadway — is now a movie, And we didn’t have enough subordinate clauses to mention the horrible gut-punch line, that Larson died the night before the first preview of “Rent.” Of an undiagnosed aortic aneurysm.
JUST THE RIGHT NOTE Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson in a 2021 film based on his autobiographical early-’90s play, “Tick, Tick … Boom!”
Thanks to Lin-Manuel Miranda and to the cinematographer, Alice Brooks, it’s a fitting movie tribute — with a theater lover’s cast, killer cameos and lyrics that resonate, like “Years are getting shorter” and “Friends are getting fatter” (“They’re Singing Happy Birthday”).. Name-dropping is permitted, as in “Your life won’t depend on whether Frank Rich laughed,” which is a line from “The Play Game,” a number that isn’t even very good overall. And Larson will even steal outright. “We’re movin’ on up to the East Side/To a deluxe apartment in the sky” is from the theme for “The Jeffersons,” which ran on CBS from 1975 to 1985. It was already in reruns at the time. Every number is not a winner, but every number has at least a moment of Larsonian magic.
There’s plenty of plot, even if the unhappy ending is a given. Larson’s girlfriend, Susan (Alexandra Shipp), a dancer, has a job offer from Jacob’s Pillow, which would mean moving to the Berkshires. She wants to talk to him about it, but he really can’t think right now or take the time to have a talk. His best friend (Robin de Jésus) has a fabulous apartment and a high-paying job in advertising, but his health problems, we soon learn, make those things beside the point. His agent (Judith Light, looking as if she had been hit by a tacky-becomes-you truck) is finally returning his call. And just as he sits down at the computer to try to write the crucial song, the lights go out. That’s right; he hasn’t paid his Con Ed bill.
Bradley Whitford gives a highly satisfying (posture-perfect) performance as Stephen Sondheim. It was impressive before Nov. 26; it’s painfully poignant now. “I thought the songs were swell,” this Sondheim says at one point.
Greatest Scene Ever: The Moondance Diner, where Larson works, at brunchtime. A man at the counter is complaining about his omelet. Wait. That man is Brian Stokes Mitchell. Wait. So that was André de Shields giving his name (his character name) to the waiter a minute ago. And that’s Joel Grey and that’s Bernadette Peters and those are many more you can discover for yourselves. And the last line of the song is — the characters were just watching “Sunday in the Park With George” on PBS — “on an ordinary Sunday.”
“Tick, Tick … Boom,” written by Steven Levenson, based on a play by Jonathan Larson, directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda. In selected movie theaters and streaming on Netflix. 1 hour 55 minutes.