Acclaimed Musical Tick, Tick… Boom! Comes to Netflix

The award-winning Off-Broadway hit streams on Netflix, fronted by Andrew Garfield

Lin-Manuel Miranda revolutionized Broadway with Hamilton, and for his feature film directorial debut he shifts the focus to another iconic stage production.

In tick, tick… BOOM!, Miranda helms an adaptation of the semi-autobiographical musical by Jonathan Larson, creator of the groundbreaking musical Rent, which debuted on Broadway in 1996. (Larson tragically died from a brain aneurysm months before the play opened to critical acclaim.)

The film focuses on Jon (Andrew Garfield, The Amazing Spider-Man, Hacksaw Ridge), a struggling young theatre composer who’s waiting tables at a New York 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, he’s feeling the pressure on all fronts: from his girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp), who dreams of an artistic life beyond New York City, to his friend Michael (Robin de Jesús), who has moved on from his dreams to a life of financial security—all 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?

Miranda has assembled a first-rate supporting cast for his directorial debut, including Judith Light, Richard Kind, Vanessa Hudgens, Michaela Jaé (MJ) Rodriguez, and Joel Grey of Cabaret fame, with Bradley Whitford portraying legendary Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim.

“I saw Rent on my 17th birthday and that was the show that unlocked for me that it was possible to actually write musicals,” Miranda told Entertainment Weekly of his admiration for Larson. “That was the year I went from just liking musicals to having the audacity to think I could maybe write one.”

Tick, Tick… Boom!  begins streaming Friday, November 19th on Netflix