Aim for fame: How can you watch ‘Tick, Tick… Boom!’ online for free?
We never thought we’d see a new Jonathan Larson adaptation in 2021, but here we are, with the movie Tick, Tick… Boom! It’s certainly a moving and entertaining musical following the life of a young theater composer.
What’s the history of Larson’s inspirational musical? And where can you watch Tick, Tick… Boom! online? Let’s explore those questions and find out.
The original Tick, Tick… Boom!
Tick, Tick… Boom! is a “rock monologue” by Jonathan Larson, who’s best known for the rock musical Rent. In this story, a composer named Jon struggles with his career choice and his relationship with Susan, a dance teacher.
Tick, Tick… Boom! is partly autobiographical, as Larson himself was a struggling musician, who had been trying to make it big since the 1980s. At first, Larson performed the work in a small theatre in the 1990s, calling it Boho Days, but after that, he revised it, changed the title, and brought it to bigger venues. Along the way, a friend of Larson’s from college, Victoria Leacock, helped bring Tick, Tick… Boom! to new places.
During this time, Tick, Tick… Boom! caught the eye of producer Jeffrey Seller, and Seller became attached to Larson’s works. After seeing through the production of Rent in 1995, he was the one who helped it go to Broadway.
As for Tick, Tick… Boom!, here’s what happened. Leacock got David Auburn, who wrote the play Proof, to retool Tick, Tick… Boom! He did, turning the “rock monologue” into a full-fledged musical, and hammering out the script & songs as a whole. The new version had an Off-Broadway performance in 2001, and after that, Tick, Tick… Boom! seemed to fade into the backdrop of history.
But what about the movie, and where can you watch Tick, Tick… Boom! online? Let’s investigate the new version.
The film adaptation of Tick, Tick… Boom!
In 2014, Lin-Manuel Miranda starred in a 2014 production of Tick, Tick… Boom! as a part of Encores!, a collection of concerts dedicated to obscure musicals. This caught the eye of a producer, Julie Oh, and after reading Miranda’s account of how Tick, Tick… Boom! inspired him in the New York Times, she aimed to make the musical a film.
However, it wasn’t an easy process. After speaking to the head of Larson’s estate, Jonathan Mills, she found they were hesitant to give away the rights, out of concerns of how Larson’s story would be told. And so, Oh asked Miranda to direct, and he was immediately interested. As Miranda was wrapping up Mary Poppins Returns, he & Oh formally got the rights to the movie.
The film was then announced in late 2018, and it was set to be Miranda’s debut as a director. Steven Levenson, who wrote the script for Dear Evan Hansen, was set to do the screenplay. He & Miranda started a long pre-production process, interviewing those who knew Larson and looking at all of Larson’s works archived in the Library of Congress. They wanted to make sure they got their portrayal right.
A streaming service later acquired the film, and Andrew Garfield was set to star in the leading role. Meanwhile, Alexandra Shipp would star as his girlfriend, Susan. With the movie’s production came a significant number of actors, especially compared to the barebones stage version. Filming started in March 2020, but then, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the movie until October of that year.
The film was finally released on November 12th, 2021, in select theatres and on a certain streaming service. So where can you watch Tick, Tick… Boom! online? Let’s discuss.
Where you can watch Tick, Tick… Boom!
Tick, Tick… Boom! is available to watch on Netflix, which acquired the film in mid-2019. So if you want to experience this movie, that’s the place to do it. By watching it, you’re telling Netflix that you’re interested in more experiences like it. And considering the fact that Tick, Tick… Boom! is quite an experimental piece, that’s a good thing.
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Are you a fan of Jonathan Larson’s work? Will you be watching Tick, Tick… Boom! on Netflix? Let us know in the comments below!
