Jonathan Larson is best known for wanting to reinvent musical theater with stories that meant something and changed the world. He toiled for years for recognition before RENT finally put him on the world stage. It ran on Off-Broadway for twelve years. BOOM is loosely based on Larson’s semi-autobiographical musical – adapted for the big screen by Steven Levenson (Dear Evan Hansen, Fosse/ Verdon).

The provocative title was the original one from Larson’s one man show. The thrust of the show was Larson’s anxiety at having not achieved anything of note before his rapidly impending thirtieth birthday. “Larson’s life was in disarray, he was an aspiring musical theater composer whose work nobody wanted to do, while working at a diner,” said Levenson. The title is a reference to the ticking time bomb Larson felt as his dreaded birthday approached. “The clock is ticking and leading to some kind of catastrophe.”

Larson worked on his one-man show over many years but it never received a full production. He gave a few one night only performances hoping a producer would invest in a theatrical run. Alas, this never happened. “In 2001, posthumously, a version of the show was put on with three actors,” explained Levenson. (Larson died in 1996 from Marfan Syndrome aged 35). Levenson wants the audience to see Larson’s life rather than the focus on his tragic death in the film.

Steven Levenson and director Lin-Manuel Miranda sought to capture the essence of Larson’s show during the film adaptation process. “We had to figure out how to convert a 55-minute monologue into a fully-realize film.”

Steven Levenson

Levenson described it as a process of “excavation” where he and Miranda visited the Library Of Congress and tracked down the various drafts of Larson’s show. “There is no final draft of the show,” so they had to decipher the timelines of certain undated drafts. Lin-Manuel Miranda tackled BOOM! as if they were creating an original musical with a score.

The core story of Larson’s vision remained intact – Larson workshopped his musical, and relationships with his girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp) and his friends. “We used almost all of Jonathan’s structure as the skeleton of the show. We edited out some incidental and sketch-like scenes.” They also had to cut back extended monologues prevalent in the show. Team Levenson and Miranda also heightened the sense of a ticking clock in the story in order to raise Larson’s stakes.

Many artists in Larson’s position suffer “impostor syndrome” and feelings of inadequacy. In contrast, “Larson felt he had so much to give and say and contribute. He felt he was born at the wrong time and the medium of musical theater was dying,” continued Levenson. Larson had little time for inadequacy and self-pity. “He was incredibly driven and determined to succeed.”

Larson believed that the songs in musical theater should sound like songs on MTV rather than sound “musical theater.” He didn’t believe there should be a genre called “musical theater” per se.

A sense of duty and generosity toward his community is a hallmark of Jon Larson’s work. His community was his de facto family. He navigated the notion of using his artistic gifts to improve the world at a time when most musical theater was about escapism.

Writing For The Stage vs Writing For The Camera

Steven Levenson has a background in writing for theater, television and film which uniquely positions him to write tick, tick… BOOM! He began his career as a playwright which will always be his spiritual home. “Writing for theater is all about dialogue and character.” This contrasts with film and television which inherently have more movement. “You need to create dynamism in theater in a limited space. It makes you drill down as you figure out how to make characters talking in a room interesting.”

The transition to screenwriting made the writer think more visually as he wrestled with the difference between “writing for the stage and writing for a camera.” A theater script will be directly transposed to the screen whereas a screenplay is a blue-print for a film. The aesthetic and final product between the two is completely different.

Writing for television is a collaborative process where you are only one writer in the room. The playwright represents a single vision, while film and TV will be influenced by other voices. “You need to combine your vision with that of other artists in film and TV to create a greater product than you might have made alone.”

Musicals are a distinct narrative form. “The singing in musicals happens when speech no longer suffices and the emotion reaches a fever pitch.” The singing should feel inevitable to capture the emotional intensity of the scene.

Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield) and Susan (Alexandra Shipp)

Musicals also allow for more economical storytelling. “One line in a song may capture a six page scene in a script.”

Songs come at moments of major transformation for characters

There is a real skill in ensuring the seamless transition from dialogue to song and back again. This is a function of how the composer and screenwriter collaborate when writing musicals. “Other times you really want a jolt, especially when Jon is self-consciously going into a bomb.”

BOOM! was structured in a particular way. Lin-Manuel Miranda and Steven Levenson listed the selected songs on a white board and constructed the dialogue around them. “The songs must be the centerpoint of any musical.” Integrating and spacing the songs with the script is a matter of intuition and experience according to Levenson. Although musicals must work as a unified whole, “you should get a sense of the complete story from the songs alone,” continued Levenson.

Jon Larson was a deeply passionate and intense man. Andrew Garfield who played him on screen captured this visceral emotion. “Larson had a huge capacity for feeling, being open, optimistic, and vulnerable… as did Andrew Garfield.”

Steven Levenson is drawn to complicated characters who are not one thing. “They have gaps and layers. I want to figure out who they are without a lot of judgment. I’m interested in characters that are difficult to understand and sympathize with.”

BOOM! is a tragedy rather than a story of a misunderstood artist finally receiving his due accolades. There is no happy ending. That doesn’t mean that the work wasn’t worth doing. “Jonathan Larson experienced a painful failure. He worked on BOOM! for eight years and never saw it produced.” (He died on the morning that RENT made its theatrical debut).

Tick, tick… BOOM! is a special project for Steven Leveson. He relished the chance to envisage life in Jonathan Larson’s psyche and experience the “refreshing spaciousness and hopefulness of his vision of his art and his life.“