Critique: Tick, Tick... Boom!

This musical is about the musical writer Jonathan Lawson.

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

We see the fictional depiction of Jonathan performing a musical in front of a crowd (also called Tick, Tick… Boom!), explaining the backstory of Superbia, another musical he wrote. But then this turns out to be the origin story of Rent, his breakthrough musical. So this musical is about a musical about a musical about a musical.

 

 

The songs were great.

They had clever lyrics, excellent backing music and the songs fit their scenes perfectly. The only problem is they’re not songs I’d ever want to listen to again. The final song and the song beginning ‘I feel bad that you feel bad that I feel bad’, but they’re applicable to life whereas the other songs are only applicable to the circumstance they’re sung in. This demonstrates Lawson’s ability to write songs about literally anything. This makes the audience feel his frustration all the more when he can’t write the key song for Superbia.

Coming back to the ‘I feel bad’ song, the choreography was amazing. The singers sat on stools and didn’t move their legs yet they were still so expressive with their movements. That was such an amazing scene.

Jonathan goes swimming and on the bottom of the pool, a stave and musical notations appear of the lined tiles. This was so clever. Plus it means he has that crucial key song.

This key song is a solo. When we hear it at the presentation, Jonathan hears his singer sing it as well as his girlfriend. They sang as a duet in harmonies, something that’s impossible when singing alone. Sometimes one would start whilst another was finishing and then they would sing together, yet the latter wouldn’t have time to say all the lyrics between finishing and then re-joining. Singing together and taking it in turn to sing different verses would have been perfect but the solo was altered into being a duet. Credit where it’s due, the song did make a pretty duet. Still, the decision to have this solo song as a duet was a poor one.

 

Jonathan and his bestie have an argument, in which the bestie shouts, “You’re writing musicals in your living room. You’re not saving the rainforest!” So hilarious.

But the argument takes a more serious turn because the bestie, being gay, can’t marry or have kids. Their friends are either dying of HIV or are afraid they’re next.

“So excuse me for enjoying my life while I still have time.” That sentence really hits home. Especially because Jonathan keeps on saying he’s running out of time: Jonathan’s version pales in comparison to that of his bestie.

 

Now for some miscellaneous points.

Jonathan thinks his time is running out because he’s turning thirty. Why are Americans obsessed with turning thirty and feeling like their life is over? It’s a common troupe in American television and film. We just don’t have that in the UK. This theme of running out of time is why he hears the ticking of the clock. But his best friend puts this into perspective by revealing he’s HIV positive.

We only find out Lawson has a cat sixty-nine minutes into the film when he cleans the litter tray. It was such a random scene, especially because we don’t see the cat again.

Jonathan gets to his presentation room and finds it empty and he’s devastated that no one has come. Someone tells him what the actual time is and he replies, “Oh. That’s good.” The relief was clear and it was just so sweet.

 

As a whole, this musical had a flare and the main character had such a sense of desperation. On the outset, a musical about someone struggling to write a song doesn’t sound particularly appetising, yet the film itself was a buffet. Having the cat was a small oversight so the only thing that really let it down was the key song, the one that Jonathan had been struggling to write. It was like finding a worm in your salad, a mistake that didn’t need to happen.