The American composer and playwright has just been recreated in the movie ‘tick, tick…BOOM!’, distributed by Netflix and starring Andrew Garfield.
American composer and lyricist Jonathan Larson he was a force of nature. Tall, lanky, with a misshapen tangle of black hair and the ambition to set the 90s on fire.
“I wrote for eight hours almost every day”, once recalled her friend Victoria Leacock. “refused to write jingles for companies whose policies or ethics he did not approve of, or to accept money for doing any kind of work for those companies. He preferred, instead, to wait tables”.
And that’s what he did for 10 years, surviving miserably in West Soho, While dreamed of becoming a Broadway composer.
When his time finally came, it couldn’t have been bigger. the music innovator Rent, advertised as “90s rock opera“, He won an award Pulitzer And the prize Tony al best musical, and eventually became the 11th longest-running show in Broadway history, with 12 years on billboard.
But Larson never got to see him. He died of an aortic aneurysm one morning on the eve of the play’s preview on the off-Broadway circuit, in January 1996, with only 35 years.
He didn’t leave much else to explore, except for an unproduced sci-fi musical, Pride, and a one man show, Boho Days, about his failure to get Pride it was done After his death, that rock soliloquy was reused as a piece of three actors and became a hit, under the title Tick, Tick… ¡Boom!
That’s where the director comes Lin-Manuel Miranda when he presents us on Netflix the film adaptation with the same name of the semi-autobiographical musical, in his directorial debut. Tick, Tick… ¡Boom! (the movie), starring Andrew Garfield like Jonathan, now captivates new generations about his life and what could have become of the frenetic and prodigious Larson.
a natural talent
Jonathan Larson was born on february 4 of 1960 and grew up in White Plains, a suburb of New York. He and his sister Julie were exposed to the performing arts from an early age. His father Allan once said: “I was changing his diaper and he started singing Yellow Bird. Tuned up”.
Larson spent his youth among drama clubs and music lessons, studying various instruments and starring in many of the theatrical productions at your high school.
He then won a scholarship to Adelphi University, where he was a prolific actor, writer, and composer. Larson said his work was inspired by the music of Billy Joel, Nirvana, The Beatles Y Stephen Sondheim (the author of Sweeney Todd). His great dream was to combine all these influences into one. During these years, Larson became close to Sondheim who became his mentor for the rest of his life (Sondheim passed away last year and in the Miranda movie he was played by Bradley Whitford).
After graduating in 1982, Larson joined the Live Theater Workers’ Union and moved to New York City. As it appears on the tape Tick, Tick… ¡Boom!, lived in a small apartment with no heating and made do by waiting tables in the Moondance Dinner (the same restaurant where Monica Geller worked from Friends y Mary Jane Watson of Spider-Man with Tobey McGuire). He cultivated a close group of friends and, sadly, saw several die of AIDS before the age of 30.
A star Is Born
In 1989, Larson decided to create a autobiographical musical about being on the cusp of 30 at the dawn of a new decade. titled it 30/90. The show reflects Larson’s life, detailing your frustrations for the lack of success in his career or in love, until his best friend tells him that he is HIV positive.
After one mixed reaction after a preview showing, the show would not be produced until after 1990, so Larson changed the title to BoHo Days, to base it on life in his neighborhood, “below Houston Street”, as well as tie it in with bohemian life.
However, since no one else understood the name, he changed it one last time as Tick, Tick… ¡Boom! Larson interpreted this one-man rock musical multiple times and after his death, playwright David Auburn transformed the show into a three-person musical.
When his friends were first diagnosed with AIDS, Larson decided he wanted write something less personal in order to address the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome crisis more broadly.
Coincidentally, they introduced Billy Aronson, a screenwriter, with the idea of creating a musical comedy update of La Boheme, set in the Upper West Side. The two began to collaborate, but Larson felt the stage should change to Lower East Side and more directly illustrate the impact of HIV (the Upper West Side is more residential and familiar, the Lower East Side is younger and more modern, with small independent premises).
In La Boheme, the characters are poor artists fighting misery and tuberculosis. Larson thought that these elements translated well into the epidemic of Page and the Lower East Side. Larson and Aronson amicably parted ways in 1991, with Larson taking over the entire project. He worked for 7 years and the initiative became his most famous work: Rent.
star twilight
The night before the premiere of Rent, on the so-called Off-Broadway circuit, Larson went home and put a kettle on to make a cup of tea she would never drink.
The composer died suddenly of a aortic dissection. The cause was the Marfan syndrome undiagnosed.
Larson had been suffering from severe chest pains and dizziness in the previous days, but neither X-rays nor EKGs showed any signs of danger and you were misdiagnosed stress or flu.
The cast and creative team decided perform the show on the day of his death with the blessing of his family.
“To the parents, sister and friends of Mr. Larson, opening night was glorious and heartbreaking”, wrote Peter Marks in The New York Times (here the complete review, in English). “Is he best and worst moment of my life”, said his sister, Julie. “This play was Jonathan. He’s totally my brother.”
Rent it became a huge hit on Broadway, winning twenty awards, including the Tony and the Pulitzer Prize, and would become a worldwide phenomenon.
His natural talent was extraordinary and in his brief composition time, in addition to write more than 200 songss, Jonathan Larson changed the landscape of musical theater forevere.
Legend has it that after the first presentation of Rent, after thunderous applause, someone in the audience broke the silence with a “Thanks, Jonathan Larson”. Thank you very much.
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
