tick, tick...BOOM! (2021) on Netflix
PG-1320211h 55mBiographyDramaMusical
Days before his 30th birthday, Jonathan Larson prepares Superbia for a workshop. His girlfriend Susan asks him to come with her for a teaching job. His friend Michael has left acting.
- Netflix4.1/5
- IMDb7.5/10130,243 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes88%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1990, Jonathan Larson waits tables at the Moondance Diner in SoHo while finishing Superbia, the musical he has worked on for eight years. His 30th birthday is a week away, and a workshop at Playwrights Horizons is his last chance. Ira Weitzman asks him for a new song for the show, the same note Stephen Sondheim gave him years before, a song Jonathan cannot write. His girlfriend Susan, a dancer turned teacher, asks him to come with her to a teaching job at Jacob's Pillow. His former roommate Michael quit acting for advertising.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about tick, tick...BOOM! (2021)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The real Stephen Sondheim voices the film's answering machine message: he asked to rewrite the voicemail after seeing the film, and when Bradley Whitford, who plays him, was unavailable to re-record the line, Sondheim offered to record it himself.
- The pool used for the "Swimming" number, at the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center in the West Village, was chosen because it matched the song's lyrics, and only while filming did the team learn it was the actual pool Jonathan Larson swam in.
- The song "Swimming" was cut by Jonathan Larson after the show's 1990 performances and had not been heard by the public in thirty years until Lin-Manuel Miranda and Steven Levenson added it to the film, along with "Boho Days" and "Play Game".
- Filming shut down after only eight days because of the COVID-19 pandemic, with the last day shot outside Larson's real apartment at 508 Greenwich Street; during the hiatus cast, crew and producers held weekly Zoom meetings they called "Tick, Tick... Zooms!".
- Andrew Garfield sang "Why" live at the Delacorte Theater in March because the pre-recorded playback track lacked enough emotion, and on another day he broke into live singing on impulse, after which Miranda was scolded by the film's COVID Compliance Monitor.
- Jordan Fisher, who had starred in Rent: Live, was cast as a character named Simon but had to drop out when his wedding fell on the day his scene was to be shot; Noah Robbins replaced him, and the scene was cut from the film altogether.
SPOILER
Production designers rebuilt Larson's former apartment at 508 Greenwich Street using footage Larson had shot of it for insurance purposes two weeks before his death, which let them place objects in their exact positions.SPOILER
Janet Charleston, the inspiration for Susan, never fully broke up with Jonathan Larson as the film shows; their on-again, off-again relationship shaped the character, and the two were still together when Larson died.
