Originally written and performed as a dramatic monologue based on his life, Jonathan Larson conceived of tick, tick…BOOM! around the same time he was creating Rent. The show was workshopped in a number of places, but a full production was never staged. After his untimely death, his producing partner Victoria Leacock brought David Auburn, author of the Pulitzer Prize winning play Proof, aboard as script consultant to reconfigure the piece. He restructured the monologue into a seamless three actor musical.
The show opened at the Jane Street Theatre on June 13, 2001, where it played until January 6, 2002. The show went on to play in Korea, the Philippines and Singapore, and a national tour of the U.S. was launched in January 2003, finishing in Boston in June. The show had its Canadian premiere in Toronto in February 2005. Previews for a new production in London starring Neil Patrick Harris begin on May 31, 2005, with a June 9 opening, and running through September 3 at the Menier Chocolate Factory.