‘tick, tick…Boom’ First Trailer: Lin-Manuel Miranda Directs Andrew Garfield in Netflix Musical

Zack Sharf
·2 min read
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.
  • Oops!
    Something went wrong.
    Please try again later.

Lin-Manuel Miranda has conquered Broadway with “In the Heights” and “Hamilton,” and he’s already proven his bonafides in film as an actor (“Mary Poppins Returns”), composer (“Moana”), and producer (“In the Heights”). So what’s next for Miranda? A seat in the director’s chair. Netflix has debuted the first trailer for Miranda’s feature directorial debut “tick, tick…Boom,” adapted from “Rent” creator Jonathan Larson’s autobiographical musical of the same name. Larson performed the musical as a solo work in 1990, before playwright David Auburn revamped it into a 2001 Off-Broadway musical following Larson’s tragic death. “Rent” opened on Broadway in the meantime, making the late Larson a musical theater phenomenon.

The official “tick, tick…Boom” synopsis from Netflix reads: “Andrew Garfield plays Jon, a young theater composer who’s waiting tables at a New York City diner in 1990 while writing what he hopes will be the next great American musical. Days before he’s due to showcase his work in a make-or-break performance, Jon is feeling the pressure from everywhere: from his girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp), who dreams of an artistic life beyond New York City; from his friend Michael (Robin de Jesús), who has moved on from his dream to a life of financial security; amidst an artistic community being ravaged by the AIDS epidemic. With the clock ticking, Jon is at a crossroads and faces the question everyone must reckon with: What are we meant to do with the time we have?”

More from IndieWire

Speaking to Jimmy Fallon earlier this year, Garfield said the following about working with Miranda: “You know Lin, he’s like a crazy mixture of the most precocious eight year-old genius student of life that won’t stop talking and has a reference to everything, while simultaneously being one of the greatest creative geniuses of our time. It’s this weird combination of having that eight year-old running around your ankles, but that eight year-old has also written ‘Hamilton.'”

“tick, tick…Boom” will open in select theaters and stream on Netflix this fall, which happens to be the 25th anniversary of Larson’s tragic passing and the Broadway debut of “Rent.” Watch the first trailer for the musical adaptation in the video below.

Best of IndieWire

Sign up for Indiewire's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.