Starring Andrew Garfield, Alexandra Shipp, Robin de Jesus, and Vanessa Hudgens
Directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Music and Lyrics by Johnathan Larson
We head across the country and skip back three decades for our next show business tale. Johnathan Larson was a struggling songwriter and composer in New York who dreamed of writing the next big musical. He had such a hard time getting his ambitious sci-fi show Superbia off the ground, he ultimately went smaller and wrote a one-man rock musical about his struggle to create that show and maintain his relationships.
After his death in 1996, playwright David Auden restructured it into a slightly larger three-person musical that debuted off-Broadway in 2001. Producer Julie Oh saw it as part of the Encores! Off-Center concert series in New York that featured Miranda and thought he was the only director who could do it justice. It debuted on Netflix in November 2021 and was a hit, doing far better on streaming than most of the other musicals released in theaters that year did. How well does it do with Larson's tumultuous life? Let's begin with footage from 1992 of Larson (Garfield) performing his three-person musical as his girlfriend Susan (Shipp) explains how they got to that point, and see...
The Story: Larson is a starving artist in New York's Greenwich Village in 1990. He's working as a waiter in a local diner and is barely able to pay the rent, let alone find the money to back his elaborate sci-fi musical Superbia that he was working on for the last eight years. He's about to turn 30 in a few weeks and is desperate to succeed before that happens. His girlfriend Susan wants to get a job teaching dance at a prestigious dance school in western Massachusetts and asks him to come with her. His best friend Michael (de Jesus) is currently working as an advertising executive and wants him to join a focus group.
Johnathan is too obsessed with his show to pay either of them much mind. His producer Ira (Johnathan Marc Sherman) asks him to come up with a new song to fill in a gap in Superbia's story, and he only has a week to do it. He feels even worse when one of his fellow waiters at the diner is hospitalized with HIV. His decision to put the workshop over his relationships leads to Susan breaking up with him and Michael reminding him that theater isn't the most stable career path. Even after his agent Rosa (Judith Light) does manage to get a few producers to see that workshop, everyone says its brilliant but too big to produce. Johnathan's ready to give up, but it takes encouragement from Michael and a very unlikely source to remind him how much he truly loves the theater and performing.
The Song and Dance: Garfield is amazing in this searing exploration of how real life expectations often collide with dreams, and how we can keep dreaming even when things are at their worst. You'd never know this was his first musical. He sounds great, raw and strong and real. De Jesus more than matches him as his best friend who gave up the theater for security and never looked back.
Considering all the trouble they had with Covid restrictions, they still managed some nice cinematography in the real New York, including the Delacorte Theater in Central Park, Larson's actual apartment, and the New York Theater Workshop building. Manuela manages to keep everything moving at a brisk pace for such a long film and throws in some really nifty touches, especially during the "Sunday" number at the diner.
Favorite Number: We open with Garfield and the cast singing "30/90," the original title of Tick...Tick...Boom!, on shaky footage from an actual camcorder. "Boho Days" is the big party number for Johnathan and his friends at his apartment. "Green Green Dress" is heard briefly on the radio before Susan and Johnathan make love after their chat on the roof during the party. "Johnny Can't Decide" whether to focus on his relationships or his career. His friends onstage Karessa (Vanessa Hudgens) and Roger (Joshua Henry) represent his actual friends pushing him to figure it out.
"Sunday" starts in the diner, but it becomes a monumental chorus routine in Johnathan's mind as he imagines half the stars on Broadway joining in to his tribute to his mentor Stephan Sondheim (Bradley Whitford). Rapper Tariq Trotter gives us the gritty Times Square of hustlers, hookers, bland "corporate" shows and huge English rock operas in the rap "Play Game." Karessa and Johnathan's goofy onstage "Therapy" is a lot less cute in real-life as Susan reminds Johnathan that she exists and he's been brushing her off. He also reveals why "Swimming" centers him and inspired him to finally write that new song.
Karessa initially sings "Come To Your Senses" at the workshop...but it's Susan Johnathan hears as he realizes what a jerk he's been. Michael also admonishes him to come to his senses, remind him that "Real Life" isn't like the theater. Johnathan wonders "Why" he's behaved like he did when he finally sits down at the Delacorte to play piano, and remembers how he fell in love with theater in the first place. We end with Johnathan, Karessa, and Roger back onstage, singing about how his music speaks "Louder Than Words."
Trivia: Among the Broadway stars who have cameos during the "Sunday" number are Brian Stokes Mitchell, Bernadette Peters, Phylicia Rashad, Joel Gray, Howard McGillin, Andre De Shields, Bebe Neuwirth, Renee Elise Goldsberry, and Phillipa Soo. Songwriters Jason Robert Brown, Jeanine Tesori, Marc Shaiman, Stephen Schwartz, Stephen Trask, and Tom Kitt are among those who can be seen as "aspiring songwriters" during the musical workshop scene.
Ironically, Larson's real-life friend who inspired the character of Michael survived contracting the HIV virus and is still alive at press time. Oh, and he was never his roommate, nor involved in the performing arts, even when they were kids. His girlfriend Janet inspired Susan, and though they were apparently off-again, on-again, they never flat-out broke up as depicted here.
The workshops for Superbia took place in 1988, not 1990. Larson was even more disappointed in its production than what's seen here. The musical theater cast couldn't muster up enough energy for the rock score, and all he managed to get was piano accompaniment. Even Sondheim left after the first act. Larson continued to have faith in it and work on it through 1992, after which he finally dropped it to focus on Rent.
What I Don't Like: This might be a little too dark for those of you looking for something lighter or more uplifting. The adult themes and some mild language makes this not for young musical lovers. I also sort of wish they cut out the wrap-arounds with Larson at the actual show, or only ran them in the beginning and end. The movie is at its strongest when it focuses on Johnathan and lets him tell his own story. And while it's apparently a little more realistic about the AIDS crisis and what men like Michael and Freddy were going through in the early 90's than the show, it's still portraying it largely through the lens of a heterosexual white youth.
The Big Finale: This might be a little too gritty to be for everyone, but if you're a fan of Rent or want to see a really good musical about creativity and making musicals, this one is worth checking out for the performances and music alone.
Home Media: This remains a Netflix exclusive at the moment.
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