The musical he was working on was Superbia (based on George Orwells dystopian novel ∱984, even though he had been denied the rights). He would write for eight hours on days off from his weekend job waiting tables at the Moondance Diner in SoHo. He lived and worked in a fifth-floor walk-up in lower Manhattan, an apartment with no heat and a bathtub in the kitchen that he shared with two roommates and a couple of cats. No up-and-coming playwright in New York City is living in the lap of luxury, but Larsons digs were especially hardscrabble. The composer died unexpectedly at age 35 in 1996 from an aortic aneurysm on the morning before the first off-Broadway preview of Rent and a few months before its Broadway debut.īut Rent was hardly his first musical and was, in many ways, shaped by an autobiographical show he was writing at the same time, about his struggles to write Superbia. The composer and playwright is best known as the creator of Rent, a musical loosely based on Puccinis 1896 opera, La Bohème.īut Larson never got to see the smash-hit success of his rock opera, which went on to win four Tony Awards. Boom! (Larsons autobiographical show about writing Superbia) straight from Tick, Tick Boom! (the new film that tells Larsons story), weve created this guide: To help you keep Superbia (Larsons never-produced musical) straight from Tick, Tick. The audience watches him struggle to write Superbia, a retro-futuristic musical, while he frets about whether he should choose a more conventional career.

19 on Netflix, portrays Larson (Andrew Garfield) and his efforts to find success in his late 20s. To clarify, that musical is not Rent. (Yes, our brains hurt, too.) Lin-Manuel Mirandas new film adaptation of Tick, Tick Boom! is the musical version of Rent creator Jonathan Larsons musical about writing a musical.

Rent tick tick boom