Here's Jonny!!

I’ve been taking a deep dive into the oeuvre of Jonathan Larson these last several weeks.  Most famously, he wrote the musical Rent, but he also wrote tick…tick…BOOM!, of which the movie version just came out on Netflix.  Now, there are several connections--I’m going to try to connect the dots clearly so everyone can follow me down the theater kid rabbit hole…

 

To begin with: Jonathan Larson wrote Rent around 1993, and it went through much workshopping before it premiered as a workshop before the public in 1996.  Tragically, the day it was to go on, Jonathan died from an undetected aortic aneurysm.  He never saw its massive success.  It has gone on to win a Tony, a Pulitzer, a GRAMMY, and other prestigious awards. 

 

Before he wrote Rent, he wrote tick…tick…BOOM!, around 1990, which is the story of his writing a musical that never came to be, and from the ashes of that, TICK…TICK…BOOM! was born.  It’s the story of the choice between remaining faithful to your art and making an actual living and paying…well…rent.  There are a lot of similar threads between the two musicals.  There are also themes about life and death, due to multiple characters in both shows being HIV positive.   

 

The movie version of Rent was made in 2005, and the movie for tick…tick…BOOM! was made in 2021.  Both are available for viewing on your streaming services (Rent is on HBO, and tick…tick…BOOM! is in Netflix).  I saw the movie Rent a few years ago…and didn’t latch onto it.  I liked the first song, “Seasons of Love” (525, 600 minutes…), but that was about it.  So I forgot about it.  Until…

 

This year, Netflix released the movie version of tick…tick…BOOM!, directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who, as you know, created the phenomenon of Hamilton.   I’m not going to drop spoilers, in case you want to watch any of these movies.  Jonathan Larson was born in 1960, and Lin was born in 1980--Lin was a theater kid and was well aware of Jonathan Larson’s work.  Both were musical theater kids and began writing their own works in high school.  When Lin spoke about writing “Wait For It” for Hamilton, he referenced Jonathan’s piano in tick…tick…BOOM!, and how it influenced him.  It makes perfect sense that he directed the movie version.  Being a monster fan of Hamilton, and having heard the story of Jonathan Larson’s influence on Lin’s writing for Hamilton, I was super interested in watching tick…tick…BOOM!

 

I decided to watch Rent again first.  Some of the songs I really liked, like “Seasons of Love”, “Rent”, “Today 4 U”, “The Tango Maureen”, “I’ll Cover You”, “La Vie Bohème”.  Most of the characters I really liked, too, with the exception of Maureen and Roger.  Funnily enough, the songs I did NOT like were songs by or about Maureen and Roger.  I loved Angel and Collins (Tom), and Mark and Joanne and Mimi, and even Benny.  I listened to--and understood the value of--Benny’s philosophy, which was choosing to work in corporate America in order to make the money necessary to further one’s artistic goals, rather than choosing to be a starving artist. 

 

Then I watched tick…tick…BOOM!--my gods, such a difference!  I immediately loved the music--it was catchy and interesting and lyrically beautiful.  I fell in love with Jonathan, played deftly and charmingly by Andrew Garfield.  He was energetic in his drive to write and perform his musical, and completely adroit at putting words to music in really satisfying ways.  I loved all of the characters, too.  One of them, Michael, is played by Robin de Jésus, who is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors, because he’s brilliant.  All of the acting was superb!  The writing was top notch!  I can’t recommend this movie enough…

 

I watched Rent again, and noticed the parallels between the theater kids with hunger in their eyes who just wanted to produce the shows they saw in their heads and the characters who decided to leave the art world and have jobs that allowed them to have nice apartments with working buzzers, heat, and groceries.  There are delightful little Easter eggs between the two as well, which I’ll leave you to figure out. 

 

I am listening to the soundtracks for both Rent and tick…tick…BOOM! over and over and over, letting the music sink into my subconscious, the way Hamilton has.  It’s delightful to be taken over in this way…And I am going to see Rent live in January of next year--it’s coming to my town!  So excited!!

 

And of course, it’s making me think about the path I chose for myself.  I chose long ago not to be a starving artist.  I work in corporate America.  And I’m good at what I do for it.  I like having food on the table and rent paid.  But I also love making art.  I do commissions for those who occasionally ask me to do them.  But they’re not enough for me to be able to quit my job and support myself with my art full time.  Have I sold out?  I don’t think so.  I still make art for art’s sake, without a price tag on it.  But I know that art and commerce is a funny mixture.  Marketability is not always the same thing as good art.  Good art doesn’t always appeal to the masses.  And because people aren’t buying my art doesn’t mean that it’s not good--it simply means that people don’t buy a lot of visual art.  They’ll buy music or movie tickets before they buy a painting.  That’s okay.  So, I remain in corporate America.  I’m 51--I’m adding to my 401K, and I’m comfy-cozy with that.  I like the symbiosis of being what my company needs me to be in order to make enough money to make the art I want because I can afford to buy paint and canvases.  That’s a good compromise for me. 

 

So thank you, Jonathan Larson, for asking the questions and for persevering.  Thank you for living your Boho Days and La Vie Bohème, and sharing them with us.