Lin-Manuel Miranda says seeing 'RENT' for the first time made him "want to write a musical".
Lin-Manuel Miranda was inspired by 'RENT'
The 41-year-old star - who has seen huge success with 'Hamilton' and 'In The Heights' - has directed new movie 'Tick, Tick... Boom!' about late playwright Jonathan Larson, and Miranda has a deep connection to his work.
Appearing on the 'Jess Cagle Show', he said: "I was an angsty morbid teenager, I had a poster of Brandon lee in The Crow on my wall. What initially pulled me in was the story of the fact that this brilliant composer did not get to see his work fulfilled, but that didn't prepare me for sitting in the back row of theatre on my 17th birthday - I went with my high school girlfriend.
"I'd never seen so contemporary a show. It was like, this takes place I New York right now... I'd never seen that diverse a cast on Broadway in my life. It felt home made and personal. I could see the author in it...
"It was also about a filmmaker and a songwriter, the two things I wanted to do with my life. And then struggling and finding out how to survive and what making it really means.
"Every but of it spoke to me, and it was the show that made me want to write a musical. I'd always loved musical, I liked being in the school play, but it was the one that made me go, 'You have something to say!' It's not a short distance from seeing that at 17 and my first draft of In The Heights at 19."
Larson died aged 35 the morning 'RENT' had its first off-Broadway preview show, and he never got to see its huge success.
For the new biographical musical drama based on the playwright's life - and named after his musical 'Tick, Tick... Boom!', Miranda made sure to tell an authentic story.
he also noted the "poignant irony" of Larson's passing.
He added: "Of course, the poignant irony of him writing so much about life and then not actually seeing that he did it.
"All the things he wanted to do with his first show, with his second show, with his third show - write popular music that also told musical theatre stories, write about something of social significance.
"He did it, he accomplished it, but he didn't live to see it."
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