Before Rent there was Tick, Tick… Boom! Andrew Garfield is ready to show off his singing chops in the film adaptation of the underground musical.
The Netflix movie marks Lin-Manuel Miranda‘s directorial debut and tells the story of the late Jonathan Larson, who struggles with feeling like his life has taken a wrong turn as he approaches his 30th birthday. Pressure mounts as he prepares to debut a new work at a showcase and races the clock to reach what could be a career-defining moment. At the same time, New York City is being devastated by the AIDS crisis.
Larson originally performed the show solo in 1990. However, he’s best known for composing Rent, which opened on Broadway in April 1996. Three months prior, the Tony winner died at age 35 after suffering an aortic aneurysm caused by an undiagnosed genetic condition.
Miranda has often spoken about how much Larson’s early work informed his own, initially signing on to direct the movie in January 2018. The following October, it was announced that Garfield would take on the lead role after Netflix acquired the rights.
“I’m not a musical theater guy in my history — it’s not something that I’ve been introduced to until the last few years, really,” Garfield admitted to The New York Times in September 2021 as he reflected on his early conversations with the Hamilton creator about the film. “So Lin left me with a copy of the music and lyrics, and he wrote at the front of it, ‘This won’t make sense now, but it will. Siempre, Lin.'”
The Pulitzer Prize winner, for his part, was totally convinced that Garfield had what it takes to bring Larson’s vision to life after seeing his “transcendent” performance in 2018’s Angels in America.
“I just left thinking, ‘Oh, that guy can do anything,'” Miranda told The New York Times. “I didn’t know if he could sing, but I just felt like he could do anything. So I cast him in my head probably a year before I talked to him about it.”
During the rehearsal process, the Academy Award nominee felt more than a little outside of his element alongside a cast of “pros,” including Vanessa Hudgens.
“I remember [musical arranger] Alex Lacamoire going, ‘Woo, Andrew!’ And then everyone behind him … were like, ‘Yeah baby, that’s it baby! You got it, baby!’ I go beet red and five minutes pass, and I’m just like, ‘Hey guys, sorry,'” the Silence actor recalled. “I start crying, and I say, ‘I don’t know if I’ve ever been this happy in my entire life, to be surrounded by the most supportive liars I have ever known.'”
While Garfield wasn’t familiar with Larson’s creation before joining the cast, it’s been on Miranda’s mind for years. “I saw that show my senior year in college when I was a theatre major about to enter the real world, and it was like a sneak preview of what my 20s were going to look like,” he told Today in 2018. “‘Here’s how hard it is, here’s how joyous it is, here’s what you’re in for, kid,’ said Jonathan Larson to me.”
Scroll down to learn more about Garfield’s musical debut in Tick, Tick… Boom!
Garfield portrays Larson in the autobiographical project, which focuses on the composer's journey to creating the next great American musical after eight years of trying to get it right. It was originally performed by Larson as a one-person show in 1990, six years before his death, and later premiered Off-Broadway in 2001.
"He spends the story trying to figure out what this ticking is: Is it turning 30? Is it that I haven't succeeded? Is it some unconscious idea of my girlfriend's biological clock combined with the pressure of my career?" Garfield explained to The New York Times. "Or is it all of my friends who are losing their lives at a very young age because of the AIDS epidemic?"
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Hudgens, MJ Rodriguez and Alexandra Shipp join Garfield on the big screen, along with Broadway alums Robin de Jesús, Jordan Fisher and Joshua Henry. The Politician's Judith Light and The West Wing's Bradley Whitford also appear.
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Before it hits Netflix on November 19, 2021, fans can catch the movie in theaters starting on November 12.
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"30/90," the first song from the cast album, debuted on streaming platforms in October 2021, giving listeners a taste of Garfield's impressive vocal range. An official release date for the full soundtrack has not been announced.
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Miranda has been a longtime fan of Larson's work and was particularly moved by Tick, Tick... Boom! after seeing it as a college student in 2001. "Here's this posthumous musical from the guy who made me want to write musicals in the first place," he recalled to The New York Times in September 2021. "I cast [Andrew] in my head probably a year before I talked to him about it."
For the Eyes of Tammy Faye star, the musical taught him more than he ever expected. "It's a strange thing when there's someone like Jon that you didn't have any relationship to before, and then suddenly now there's this mysterious forever connection that I am never, ever going to let go," Garfield told the outlet. "I just feel so lucky that Jon was revealed to me, because now I don’t remember who I was before I knew who Jon was."
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Fans aren't the only ones who didn't know Garfield could sing — he even surprised himself. "The jury's still out," he joked of his musical talent during a June 2021 appearance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. "I've never sung before. It was kind of a shot in the dark."
The British star remembered a conversation with his massage therapist, Gregg Miele, who also works with Miranda, that got the ball rolling. "Lin one day goes, 'Hey, Gregg, can Andrew Garfield sing?'" the actor said. "And Gregg immediately goes, 'Oh, my God, buddy, he has the most beautiful voice. He's an angel.' ... And then Gregg called [me] and he goes, 'Hey, Andy, can you sing? ... Lin thinks you can sing.'"
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