When Netflix released a deleted song from Tick, Tick… Boom! titled “The Green Green Dress,” the scene garnered hundreds of thousands of views on YouTube and demonstrated the continued success of the film, even after nearly a year. Director Lin Manuel Miranda’s adaptation of the autobiographical movie musical depicted the prolific writer and performer Johnathan Larson (Andrew Garfield) as he navigated his interpersonal relationships and dreamed of writing a hit musical.
The deleted scene “The Green Green Dress” followed a party that celebrated Jonathan’s girlfriend Susan Wilson’s (Alexandra Shipp) dance recital. In the scene, Jonathan and Susan talked on the roof of Larson’s apartment, and Susan gave Jonathan her coat to keep warm. Once he saw her in her green party dress, the two suggestively sang and danced their way into Jonathan’s bedroom. In the final cut of the film, after Susan gave Jonathan her coat, it skipped the singing and cut right to the bedroom.
If “The Green Green Dress” was included in the final cut of Tick, Tick… Boom! it would have strengthened the film. On a technical level, the scene matched the tone and editing style of the other song sequences in Tick, Tick… Boom! more so than what is included in the final cut. On an emotional level, the scene strengthened the relationship between Jonathan and Susan, causing their subsequent tailspin to be even more heartbreaking.
The editing of “The Green Green Dress” perfectly matched the tone of the rest of the film. The song served as a transition that brought the audience from the roof to the bedroom moment by moment, but in the final version, they opted to thrust the audience into a new location. The romantic tension through the crescendoing music and choreography between Jonathan and Susan was lost in favor of a shorter runtime. Although the original cut incorporated “The Green Green Dress” song in a radio edit that played while the couple kissed, the deleted version of the song’s composition matched the music that is present throughout the rest of the film much more organically. While Tick, Tick… Boom! is already successful, this cut sequence would have smoothed out the transition by adding another fun number to the movie.
“The Green Green Dress” also encapsulated why Jonathan and Susan loved each other without much exposition, setting up a devastating contrast to their relationship. The high-energy song demonstrated their entrancement with each other. If they had kept this scene, their carefree love would directly contrast the eventual sadness present in later songs like “Come to Your Senses,” wherein Jonathan imagines Susan singing to him on that same roof. However, in the latter sequence, she was clad in a black dress and the two are positioned on opposite sides of the roof. This brilliant visual contrast would demonstrate how their relationship has changed. This parallel of the couple at their happiest versus the couple at their lowest would have made the implosion of their relationship that much more heartbreaking for the audience. Andrew Garfield’s emotional range alone in these moments is enough to justify keeping the sequence in Tick, Tick…Boom!
The runtime of a film is different than the expected runtime of a musical, so unfortunately something in the adaptation of Tick, Tick… Boom! had to go. Sadly, “The Green Green Dress” was sacrificed for the sake of other moments. However, given the song’s significance to the characters and its many views on youtube, an argument can be made that an extended cut of the film should be added to the Blu-Ray release to incorporate the Tick, Tick… Boom! deleted scene in its proper place.
