Lin-Manuel Miranda’s film adaptation of Jonathan Larson’s musical Tick, Tick...Boom! premiered this month on Netflix and in select theatres. The musical is the autobiographical story of Larson himself, chronicling his struggles to break into the musical theatre industry. In early iterations, the musical was performed by Larson alone, accompanying himself on a piano. However, after Larson’s untimely death in 1996 and the global success of RENT, Tick, Tick...Boom! was expanded by playwright David Auburn and revived at the Jane Street Theatre in 2001.

The Larson papers, which chronicle the development of the piece, are preserved and freely accessible at the Library of Congress. Over the past few days, staff there have been blogging about the material in that collection, and a visit to the collection is certainly worth a trip to Washington D.C. for any scholar or fan of Larson’s work. At the Library for the Performing Arts, though, we have fascinating documentation of various productions of the show over the past 28 years.

Program and clippings file

Some of the most used collections in the Theatre Division are our files of programs, press releases, and news reports about theatre and the people who make it. The file for Tick, Tick...Boom! includes the program from the 1993 solo presentation at New York Theatre Workshop, two off-Broadway productions, and the London production (starring Neil Patrick Harris) at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

The Richard Kornberg Records

The Richard Kornberg and Associates Records, donated by the eponymous publicist who promoted both RENT and the off-Broadway premiere of Tick, Tick…Boom!, includes the press packages released to promote the show.

Original press release

This press release takes every opportunity to connect the musical to RENT, mentioning the title three times in each of the major paragraphs, and making it clear that the musical is connected to the Broadway hit both by its creator and also by its subject matter (the musical “takes you on the playwright/composer’s journey that led to the Broadway blockbuster.”).

Press release for Korean production in three cities simultaneously

Soon after Tick, Tick...Boom! opened off-Broadway, it opened simultaneously in three theatres in South Korea. The press release notes the importance of the number three in the musical (three characters, the protagonist is turning 30) to celebrate the event.

Press release announcing Joey McIntyre

On September 10, 2001, Playbill reported that Joey McIntyre would take over for Raul Esparza in the role of "Jonathan," as Esparza had recently been cast in the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins. The tragic events of the following day stalled the plans for the Assassins revival, but McIntyre did step into the role in Tick, Tick...Boom! nonetheless. As Kornberg’s press release notes, this was McIntyre’s off-Broadway debut, though the 1995 movie version of The Fantasticks had recently been released on home video (after being held back for five years in the hope it would find a theatrical release).

Joan Marcus photographs

Famed photographer Joan Marcus documented both casts of the Jane Street production. The Library preserves the photographs selected by the publicity team in the Kornberg collection, as well as all of the photographs taken during the photo shoot in Marcus’s own papers. These photos are quick, relatively low-resolution digital scans of the slides in Kornberg’s papers.

2014 Encores! concert

Less than a year before Hamilton opened on Broadway, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Leslie Odom Jr., and Karen Olivio appeared in a concert version of the musical for Jeanine Tesori’s Encores! Off Center series. Joan Marcus photographed this production as well.

Animations of photographs of of Tick, Tick...Boom!

Because the Library preserves all of the photographs of a shoot in addition to those actually selected for publication, it is sometimes possible to generate animations of a moment by stitching sets of photographs together into an animated gif. 

After Lin-Manuel Miranda appeared in a 2014 revival concert of Tick, Tick...Boom! at New York City Center, interest in the piece surged.  In 2016, New York’s Keen Theater Company produced the piece at off-Broadway’s Acorn Theater.  Photographer Carol Rosegg documented the production.  Here are animations of some of her photographs, featuring George Salazar as Michael, Ciara Renée as Susan, and Nick Blaemire as Jonathan.

The Theatre Division is pleased to celebrate and preserve the work of Jonathan Larson and all who labor to create theatre.