And now, for something completely different

“The first time I stepped into Jonathan’s apartment felt pretty surreal because Alex DiGerlando, our set designer, had entirely recreated his apartment.

Every corner of the nook and cranny; from the sagging bookshelves to his cassette collection which he managed to research and find exactly what he had. His book collection, his record collection, his cassette collection was covering the walls and we got to use the actual chair that he used to sit and play in and write on.

I mean, so many Easter Eggs in the design. The actual Frisbee that he used to play with. It’s kind of endless and like the art on his walls, they were loaned to us again by the artist that had painted them.”

Stephen Sondheim being Jonathan Larson’s biggest supporter in Tick, Tick… BOOM! (2021)

“When I showed [Stephen Sondheim] the finished film, he said, ‘You treated me gently and royally, for which I’m grateful,’” says [Lin-Manuel Miranda]. “And then he wrote me and said, 'But the last phone message to Jon, the language feels a little trite. I don’t feel like I would ever really say that. Can I rewrite it?’ I was like, 'Gosh, a rewrite from Stephen Sondheim — do I accept this?’”

There was only one problem — [Bradley Whitford] had already wrapped his work on the project and was unavailable to re-record it. Sondheim offered to record the new version for Miranda, and it’s his voice that audiences can hear in the final cut.

“It makes me weep to even think about,” gushes Miranda. “Because he was such a mentor to Jon and generations of songwriters. But yes, he rewrote that message and recorded it himself and just sent it to me." (x)