tick, tick...BOOM! Film Review (Contains Spoilers)| CarenzaOnBooks

Taken from Google Images

Title- tick, tick...BOOM!

Creators- Lin-Manuel Miranda and Steven Levenson 

Cast- Andrew Garfield, Vanessa Hudgens, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesús, Joshua Henry and Judith Light with an ensemble cast

Genre- biographical musical drama

Length- 2 hours

Platform- Netflix

Rating- 5/5 stars 

Plot

Tick, Tick... Boom! (also stylized as tick, tick... BOOM!) is a 2021 American biographical musical drama film directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda in his feature directorial debut. Written by Steven Levenson, it is based on the stage musical of the same name by Jonathan Larson. The film stars Andrew Garfield, Robin de Jesús, Alexandra Shipp, Joshua Henry, Judith Light, and Vanessa Hudgens.

Opinions  

tick, tick...BOOM! was a film I have wanted to watch for a while. I'm a big fan of Andrew Garfield, after his work on Angels in America (my favourite play) and I love Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda, so this was a must watch for me. I have watched the trailer more times than I care to admit, already impressed with Andrew Garfield's performance. I watched this shortly after it came out and I was blown away. An easy favourite for the year. 

Taken from Google Images

He's been praised so many times for his performance as Jonathan Larson, but Andrew Garfield was just incredible in the lead role. It was like it was created for him. I have seen Andrew Garfield in a lot of things, but this was easily one of his best performances. His singing was so good, and his acting was up to his usual standards. I believe he deserves some awards for his performance because he really knocked it out of the park. I would love to see him do some musical theatre roles after this as he would excel in them. 

When I say I have been listening to the soundtrack repeatedly after watching this film, I am not joking. In fact, I got the CD of the soundtrack for Christmas and I cannot wait to listen to it all the time. My favourite song would have to be Therapy because it's very clever and kinda manic. The whole cast are incredible. These songs have a way of getting stuck in your head. I have random lyrics rattling around my head. 

You can tell that so much love went into this film. Of course Lin-Manuel Miranda's directorial debut would be a film like this. It was a love letter to theatre and the great Jonathan Larson. I didn't know much about Jon before watching this film, other than he wrote Rent and he died young. This film radiates love from the writing, to the directing, to the performances, to basically everything. The cameo's throughout were amazing. The one from the late Stephen Sondheim was particularly touching. I also enjoyed Lin-Manuel Miranda's cameo, it was very well done. 

This film has made me miss live theatre a lot. It's been almost two years since I sat in a theatre and was engrossed in a play/musical. It highlighted everything I loved and a lot of feelings I've been feeling myself. I will be rewatching this over and over. Just a beautiful film. 

What did you think of tick, tick...BOOM!?  

My Edinburgh Fringe Trip 2019| CarenzaOnBooks

For the sixth year in a row (or maybe the seventh, I'm losing track), I went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. I love going to the Fringe each summer, it's always one of the highlights of my summer and this year was no exception. I will be honest and say that this was probably the smallest amount of shows I've seen at the Fringe. I only saw four of the five I had planned, which meant it was quite a small trip. Except for last year, I've only been able to attend the Fringe for one day meaning the number of shows I can see is limited. However, even though I only saw four shows, I saw some really good shows.

Show One- Vampire Hospital Waiting Room

This was partly for research for the play I've been writing this summer, but my family and I decided that we should go an see this show. It is a mashup of various genres and was a great start to my trip. A comedy musical set in a hospital waiting room while one of the doctors tries to become a vampire. It was a laugh a minute, filled with great songs and funny moments, some of which I expect weren't planned but were funny nevertheless. It took stereotypes used in these types of horror films and ramped them up to make them even funnier. It was clear from the beginning that this was a bit of a piss-take show, which are always good dun at the Fringe. 

The Missed Show- The Accident Did Not Take Place

Sadly, this was a show that we just missed arriving in time for. We had thought it was on at 1:15, but it actually started at 1pm so we just missed it. Some venues at the Fringe are very strict about the late arrivals policy and this was one of them. We arrived at 1pm, and we weren't allowed admission. It was very frustrating to not be allowed in, but sadly you have to accept this policy. It became more frustrating as at our final show of the day, they were letting people in a good ten minutes after the show had started and even started it five minutes late to allow people to arrive. I hope this is something that is fixed for future Fringes.  

Show Two- Anguis 

The only bit of "serious" theatre we saw at the Fringe. It was a play written by Sheila Atim, the Olivier award-winning actress. The story was told through a live podcast typesetting. The podcast was a scientific one and the person being interviewed was Queen Cleopatra. At the surface, it was about two strong women from different eras, but underneath there were themes of the struggles of women in science, women in general and the treatment of people of colour. It was punctured with moments of humour and had some excellent songs in it. If Sheila Atim was to write another play, I would happily go and see it, knowing I was in safe hands. 

Show Three- West End Producer Live: Free Willy

If you are familiar with the theatre world, then you will have undoubtedly heard of West End Producer. If not then here's a very quick summary- a man in a somewhat scary mask (sorry) talks about life in the West End in a flamboyant way. I'll be honest, this was my least favourite show we saw. It wasn't a type of show I'd normally gravitate towards as I'm not a fan of audience participation and it wasn't my style of comedy. It was still very interesting, but the audience participation and scary mask really put me off. I think my family enjoyed it more than I did. And the rest of the audience seemed to enjoy it, just not me. 

Show Four- Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea-Witch

Another spectacular show by the Fat Rascal Theatre company. I saw Vulvarine last year and we were desperate to see their new musical. A feminist, anti-body-shaming retelling of the Little Mermaid from the perspective of Ursula? What's not to love? It was another laugh a minute, with rewritten versions of famous songs from the Little Mermaid including Kiss the Girl being about consent and Part of Your World about Ariel being desperate for a quick shag. The set was incredible, the cast was phenomenal, it was the best show I saw this year. The only sad thing was that I had to run to catch the train home as soon as it ended. I will happily and definitely go and see anything they do again. They are a theatre company to keep an eye on.