Breaking: Lin-Manuel Miranda to Direct TICK, TICK... BOOM! Film Adaptation; DEAR EVAN HANSEN's Steven Levenson to Pen Script
By: Matt Tamanini Jul. 19, 2018
With the IN THE HEIGHTS film currently in pre-production, Lin-Manuel Miranda is looking to extend his reach into musical films as Deadline is reporting that the multi-talented star will make his feature film directorial debut with the big screen adaptation of Jonathan Larson's TICK, TICK... BOOM!
DEAR EVAN HANSEN book writer Steven Levenson will be adapting the screenplay, and Miranda, Brian Glazer, Ron Howard, Julie Oh, and Larson's sister Julie will produce.
Broadway producer and historian Jennifer Ashley Tepper is also working on the project as the "Historian Consultant." No timetable or casting has been announced for filming.
Miranda starred opposite his future HAMILTON co-star Leslie Odom, Jr. and his IN THE HEIGHTS leading lady Karen Olivo in a New York City Center Encores' Off-Center production of the show in 2014.
The musical is a semi-autobiographical by the famed RENT composer Larson, as it looks at a New York City composer dealing with the realities of juggling living and art when approaching his 30th birthday. The show was originally performed in 1990 at Second Stage Theatre when it was called BOHO BOYS. At that point, the show was performed as a one-person "rock monologue," but following Larson's death in 1996 the show's original producer Victoria Leacock asked Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Auburn to adapt it into a three-person musical.
The show made its Off-Broadway premiere in 2001 starring Raul Esparza, Jerry Dixon, and Amy Spanger. It was revived Off-Broadway in 2016 by the Keen Company where it starred Nick Blaemire, Ciara Renee, and George Salazar.
Before the announcement was made official, Miranda teased the news with a short Twitter video.
Stop the clock... pic.twitter.com/b8lbcXbzKh
- Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) July 19, 2018
In the show, Jonathan's girlfriend wants to get married and move out of the city, his best friend is making big bucks on Madison Avenue, but Jon is still waiting on tables and trying to write the great American musical. This exhilarating, funny, and moving work by the late Larson will speak to anyone who's ever gotten lost on their way to finding their dreams.
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