Like the founding father at the center of Hamilton, Jon writes like he’s running out of time. Love is like a song in 'tick, tick.Boom!' Credit: Netflix But could his breakthrough be coming at week’s end, with a promising workshop performance? While he’s living in a shabby apartment with growing debt and waning confidence, his best friend Michael (Robin de Jesús) has quit the struggling artist game, sold out to corporate America, and is moving on up (to the East Side.) Meanwhile, Jon's dancer girlfriend (Alexandra Shipp) is urging him towards settling down outside the city.

In 8 days, he’ll turn 30, officially becoming too old for Broadway success to make him a prodigy. Tick, tick.Boom! begins in 1990 SOHO, where aspiring composer Jon (Andrew Garfield) is juggling a survival job, an in-the-works high-concept rock musical, and an oft-overwhelming fear of failure. It’s the kind of chaotic energy that can boom with possibility.or be really annoying. The result has big Theater Kid Energy, the kind that causes us to explode into show tunes in public (be it on key or woefully off.) It’s the kind of chaotic energy that can boom with possibility.or be really annoying if that’s not your scene. The multi-hyphenate who turned the world of Broadway upside down with a historical rap musical now channels his boundless enthusiasm into every frame of his feature directorial debut. The litmus test on whether or not you’ll fall in love with tick, tick.Boom! may not be Rent appreciation as much as a love for all things Lin-Manuel Miranda. But translated to the screen by Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda and Dear Evan Hansen scribe Steven Levenson this musical gives a slightly more grounded yet sensationally cinematic interpretation of La Vie Bohème. So, I had glumly predicted tick, tick.Boom!, a musical about the life of Rent’s creator Jonathan Larson, would not be my jam. But I couldn’t connect to those fantastical bohemians, who were glorious in their grimy paradise. For years, I lied about that because as a theater kid growing up in the ‘90s, I was expected to love Rent. Full Disclosure: I’ve never been a fan of Rent.

Rent and tick tick boom