Tick Tick…Boom!

Every teacher has had a student who tried to charm his way to an A by writing about how he couldn’t write the paper assigned. Tick, Tick…BOOM proves that sometimes it works. This is the Jonathan Larson musical he wrote — before the phenomenal Rent — about writing a musical. And, boy! does it work!

As Lin-Manuel Miranda’s screen adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s Off-Broadway musical-about-writing-a-musical begins, anxiety-riddled Jon (Andrew Garfield) prepares to celebrate his 30th birthday in his cramped fifth-floor walk-up in Lower Manhattan with his dancer girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp), singing “This is the Life!”