In the Heights comes out today in theaters and on HBOMax, but would you like another 2021 Lin-Manuel Miranda movie musical to go with your first 2021 Lin-Manuel Miranda movie musical? Netflix just put out the trailer for its film adaptation of the Jonathan Larson musical tick, tick… BOOM!, which marks Miranda’s directorial debut. The movie stars Andrew Garfield in the role of Jon. The character’s a lightly-fictionalized version of Larson, who wrote tick, tick … BOOM! while also working on Rent and died just before that megahit started performances. In this musical, he’s still just a young songwriter hustling to make a name for himself. As he frets about both an upcoming workshop performance of his musical and his 30th birthday, Jon also deals with pressure from his girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp) and his friend Michael (Robin de Jesús). Meanwhile Joshua Henry and Vanessa Hudgens play Roger and Karessa, singers in Jon’s show. Plus, you don’t see him in the trailer, but Bradley Whitford is playing Stephen Sondheim!
tick, tick … BOOM! premieres on Netflix this fall, joining the 2021 crop of other movie musicals that includes In the Heights, Dear Evan Hansen, West Side Story, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, and Annette. Of all of them, it has certainly already distinguished itself by containing the most punctuation.