Lin-Manuel Miranda on tick, tick... BOOM- 'It Was the First Musical I Saw That Felt Truly Contemporary'
As BroadwayWorld previously reported, Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Vanessa Hudgens, and Robin de Jesus have joined the cast of Lin-Manuel Miranda's upcoming Netflix adaptation of Jonathan Larson's "tick, tick... BOOM!"
Miranda recently chatted with Page Six about the project. "I was a kid who wanted to be a filmmaker all my life," Miranda explained. "I was the kid who found it easier to have a camcorder on my arm than engage with people my age," he said. "So when I watched 'Rent' and there's a character who's always spinning a camera, and at one point, another character goes, 'You just film us because you're scared of connecting' ... I went [gestures to looking uncomfortable], in the last row of Nederlander Theatre was Jonathan Larson attacking me and my adolescence."
He continued: "It was the first musical I saw that felt truly contemporary ... I was like, 'Oh, this takes place in New York, downtown. So, I started writing musicals because that show gave me permission to write musicals."
The musical is set in 1990 and follows Jon, an aspiring theater composer who waits tables in New York City while writing Superbia, which he hopes will be the great American musical that will finally give him his big career break. The young man is feeling pressure from his girlfriend Susan, who is tired of continuing to put her life on hold for Jon's career aspiration. Meanwhile, Jon's best friend and roommate Michael has given up on his creative dream and has taken a high paying advertising job on Madison Avenue and is preparing to move out. As Jon approaches his 30th birthday, he is overcome with anxiety, wondering if his own impossible dream is worth the cost.
The autobiographical "tick... tick... Boom!" started as Larson's one-man show. After his death, playwright David Auburn revamped the show, which has since played off-Broadway and on tour in the United States.
Miranda produces alongside Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, and Julie Oh.
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