MANILA -- 9 Works Theatrical is returning after a three-year hiatus with a restaging of Jonathan Larson's "Tick, Tick... Boom."

Director Robbie Guevara acknowledged that the musical has gained popularity during the pandemic, following the release of its movie version on Netflix in 2021 starring Andrew Garfield.

And while he is generally satisfied with their first staging in 2016, he felt the need to take things up a notch this time around.

"People have already seen the Netflix movie and that's where most of them would be coming from. The movie is actually far more popular now than the play because of reach," Guevara said in an interview with ABS-CBN News and select media after rehearsals.

"The movie was specifically rewritten to reflect Jonathan Larson, but the play was never that way," he noted. "The play was about a person named Jon who has the story of Jonathan Larson."

"That's where we're coming from, we have to give the audiences more."

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Recalling 9 Works' 2016 run of "Tick, Tick... Boom," Guevara said they had a "bare" stage, with the script and acting doing most of the work.

But in this year's restaging, they are taking a more "semi-realistic" approach.

"There's an actual set... we have physical props already," Guevara said. "We want to give the audiences not

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Each show will be different during the stage return of "Tick, Tick... Boom," Guevara noted, as there are as many as eight cast combinations.

There are two sets of actors playing the roles of Jon (Jef Flores and Khalil Ramos), Michael (Reb Atadero and Vien King), and Susan (Tanya Manalang and Kayla Rivera) during its run on all weekends of August at RCBC Plaza in Makati.

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"They're not going to be 'Set A, Set B.' They're going to be really mixed, so there are eight combinations of the cast," Guevara said. "And every time they play with a different person, umiiba 'yung attack."

"So we're still discovering new things and that, for me, is the best part about this run, this reincarnation of the show," he added. "I'd like to think that every show we do will be better than the last one. So this will be better."

As they continue to rehearse for "Tick, Tick... Boom," cast members have nothing but happiness and gratitude as the theater community starts to "rise from the ashes of the pandemic."

"Just to be able to see friends from the industry being able to do it again, it's a gift... Personally, I think it's a wonderful time," Atadero said.

"I can't afford to take anything for granted anymore, not even a line. Everything was written for a reason," added Manalang. "I've evolved during the pandemic, ironically because I wasn't going through any workshops. I think it was life that taught me to give text work more importance."

"And it's not just about sounding good and getting the notes right. I think it has a lot to do with the struggle we had to deal with that we didn't foresee," she added.

Tickets to "Tick, Tick... Boom" are available at Ticket2Me.