Movie Music Monday: The second tick, tick... BOOM! soundtrack drop speaks "Louder Than Words"

The first officially released track from Lin-Manuel Miranda's film of Jonathan Larson's musical tick, tick... BOOM!, "30/90," was understandably the auditory answer to the question, "Can Andrew Garfield pull off the singing?" (Short answer: yes.) So it would follow that the second official release would be a song that featured more of the cast, and that song would be the one that is most prominently featured in the film's two trailers, "Louder Than Words." Where "30/90" answered the most burning question about Miranda's film, the seemingly straightforward "Louder Than Words" raises some new ones. On stage, the song is the show's rousing closer (a concept Larson would take to even more cathartic heights with the indelible "Finale B" in Rent), sung by the thinly veiled Larson avatar "Jon" and the two other actors in the three-person cast, whose primary characters (of a few) are that of his girlfriend Susan and best friend Michael. Alexandra Shipp and Robin de Jesús, respectively, play those roles in the film, but joining Garfield (who, after hearing him effortlessly carry two tracks now, I no longer have any vocal doubts about) as Jonathan Larson are not that pair but another, Vanessa Hudgens (who plays actress Karessa Johnson) and Joshua Henry, whose "Roger" character (exact relation to the Larson character still unknown) also lent support on "30/90." This implies an alteration of the song's exact context in the film, possibly as part of a show Larson stages, which is strongly suggested by the shots of Garfield performing the song at a piano in the full trailer. However the number plays out in the film, Miranda's longtime collaborator Alex Lacamoire's production is suitably polishes the already-strong tune for the cinema, and the final bit is as quietly, understatedly moving as it is on the livestage and the 2001 Original Off-Broadway cast recording.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's film of Jonathan Larson's tick, tick... BOOM! is set for release in select cinemas on Friday, November 12 before streaming worldwide on Netflix on Friday, November 19. The film is set to have its world premiere as the opening night film of AFI FEST 2021 on Wednesday, November 10.

The Movie Report wants to attend all your live stage productions, film premieres, and special events! Please send any and all invitations to this address. Thanks!

Movie Music Monday: Andrew Garfield ably carries a tune in the latest looks & listens at Lin-Manuel Miranda's film of tick, tick... BOOM!

After dropping a teaser back in June, Netflix has just released the first full trailer for first-time film director Lin-Manuel Miranda's biopic adaptation of the late Jonathan Larson's Off-Broadway musical tick, tick... BOOM!. The new two-and-a-half minute spot continues the approach set by the teaser, emphasizing the story, going into greater detail about then-aspiring-composer Larson's (played here by Andrew Garfield) bohemian lifestyle in Manhattan's East Village and his struggles with creating and perfecting a meaningful work as age 30 rapidly approaches. (There is a slight misdirect here, as the particular work he is shown tirelessly toiling on is implied to be his ultimate claim to fame, Rent, when it is in fact--unless Miranda and screenwriter Steven Levenson made a major alteration from stage to screen--Larson's never-produced science fiction musical Superbia.) While still playing generally coy with offering listens of the adapted song score, the new trailer does feature an ample sample of the closing number on stage, "Louder Than Words," and, thus, a more proper taste of Garfield's singing voice. This writer's (and Larson fan) preliminary assessment? He may very well be more than up for all of the demands of this role.

That cautious optimism is further boosted by the first song on the soundtrack to officially be released, "30/90." On stage, this hard-driving opening number (whose overall vibe presages the title number of Rent) is an ensemble effort between "Jon" and best friend Michael and girlfriend Susan. Except for a brief bit solo by Broadway stalwart Joshua Henry (playing an as-yet-unspecified role), the track is a solo showcase for Garfield's abilities. Even if he's not a vocal powerhouse on the level of the Off-Broadway originator Raúl Esparza, he more than ably does justice to Larson's hook-laden melody and, more importantly for film, vocally sells the sense of creative and existential angst and frustration that fuels both the song and the piece as a whole. It's still early, but these early reveals are quite promising for the film as a whole.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's film of Jonathan Larson's tick, tick... BOOM! is set for release in select cinemas on Friday, November 12 before streaming worldwide on Netflix on Friday, November 19. The film is set to have its world premiere as the opening night film of AFI FEST 2021 on Wednesday, November 10.

The Movie Report wants to attend all your live stage productions, film premieres, and special events! Please send any and all invitations to this address. Thanks!

Movie Music Monday: The countdown officially begins for Lin-Manuel Miranda's film of Jonathan Larson's tick... tick... BOOM!

Ubiquitous multimedia multi-hyphenate Lin-Manuel Miranda has a number of projects set to hit the big screen following this past weekend's release of Jon M. Chu's adaptation of his first show, In the Heights, including a pair of animated features featuring new songs from the actor/writer/composer, Sony and Netflix's Vivo and Disney's Encanto. Completing the set of live action bookends for his cinema year is his film directorial debut, which actually does not feature any of his music, for it's an adaptation of another stage composer's work, the late Jonathan Larson's tick, tick... BOOM!.

The show originated as an autobiographical one-man show for the future Rent writer/composer in 1990, and then it was ultimately revamped and reconfigured five years after Larson's untimely death into a modest, semi-autobiographical but very thinly veiled, three-actor piece that has earned a devoted cult following thanks to a number of Off-Broadway and regional productions since 2001. The recently released first teaser trailer for Miranda's film version shows that he and screenwriter Steven Levenson (the man responsible for the (inexplicable, in this writer's opinion) current Broadway sensation Dear Evan Hansen) have dropped the "semi-" from "semi-autobiographical," making a musical biopic somewhat akin to what Dexter Fletcher did to the life of Elton John with Rocketman. The big question that arose since the film began production is the singing abilities of lead Andrew Garfield as Larson. The teaser doesn't quite answer that query, for it surprisingly offers very little actual music, let alone music sung by its leading man. A slight taste of Garfield's voice comes at the beginning, with him briefly leading a group singalong of the cut-for-the-stage Larson tune "Boho Days"; he sounds perfectly fine, but given it's a tossed-off, casual in-scene bit, it's hard to gauge whether he can pull off more strenuous numbers like the heartwrenching 11-o'clock number "Why." What can be assessed off-hand is the appropriateness of Garfield's casting, and rocking Larson's unruly head of hair atop his own naturally tall and lanky frame, he rather eerily resembles the real thing. The only other song sample is literally a line from the show's closer, "Louder Than Words" (alas, I fully expect my favorite song from the show, the showstopping power ballad "Come to Your Senses"--set to be performed in the film by Vanessa Hudgens--will be saved for the release of the film proper), but the aim of this first look seems to selling the story first, music second. Given his own life and work, Miranda unsurprisingly conveys the existential angst of an ambitious artist trying to make a mark as time all too palpably ticks by in these two minutes, which also offers tantalizing glimpses of his flair for filming elaborately fanciful and cinematic production numbers.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's film of Jonathan Larson's tick, tick... BOOM! is set for release in select cinemas and on Netflix sometime this fall.

The Movie Report wants to attend all your live stage productions, film premieres, and special events! Please send any and all invitations to this address. Thanks!