A film adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical musical which talks of his struggle to get his first musical made and his crisis over whether he has made the right career choice in life. 

Tick, Tick… Boom! is a good film featuring an amazing lead performance that will make musical theatre fans beam with joy and those who find a show tune grating positively squirm in pain. 

The film is split between the stage where Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield) tells and occasionally sings his story with Vanessa Hudgens and Joshua Henry and New York where those stories are dramatised. 

The ticking of the title refers to the fact that Larson’s 30th birthday is just around the corner and as yet he has not had a show produced, unlike his idol Stephen Sondheim (Bradley Whitford). As he struggles to get a presentation of his musical Superbia together he starts to pay less attention to those who mean the most to him. His girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp) needs to discuss an important career decision whilst his best friend Michael (Robin de Jesus) has an important life changing issue to talk about. 

All of this is of course filled with some fantastic show tunes which first time director Lin Manuel Miranda has tried to give some filmic quality to. Whilst the staging of these tunes is sometimes less interesting than others one thing that is always riveting is Andrew Garfield’s performance. He manages to give real range to Larson and really goes all in on the more camp musical theatre moments and he is just superb throughout. 

I would love to be able to say this is for everyone. But I am very confident you need some existing love for a musical before venturing into this world, but as long as you do I think you will love it. 

Oh and did I say Andrew Garfield is positively amazing?