‘Tick Tick Boom’ Review: Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Directorial Debut Has the Highs and Lows of a Passion Project

It’s been over 30 years since Jonathan Larson’s first performance of “Tick Tick Boom” a work he categorized as a rock monologue.

Just a few years before his tragic and wholly unexpected passing (on the eve of the premiere of his seismic musical “Rent”), he channeled his anxieties into a show about struggling to write a generation-shifting piece of theater.

For those unfamiliar with the history behind it, the opening of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s new Netflix-bound film adaptation of “Tick Tick Boom” offers an overview (complete with a tongue-in-cheek disclaimer that lets the audience put their chosen amount of stress on the “semi” in “semiautobiographical”).It’s that spirit of artistic license that presents the biggest challenge for Miranda who, along with screenwriter Steven Levenson, opts to split the difference on this film version.

While framing the action around a recreation (of sorts) of Larson’s original presentation,

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