Thread by @bohodaysbook

For today's #TickTickBoomMovie history thread, I actually want to go beyond the #Superbia and #TickTickBoom eras and into one of Larson's side projects. It's time to break down some walls and overcome your #Blocks.

In the early 90's, a producer named Karen Butler started a company called Broadway Arts for Young People. The goal was to do issues-driven theatre for children and schools. Not just fairy tales but something that would hit hard.

You might be thinking "Political theatre for kids? What kind of liberal propaganda is that?" But @GripsBerlin has been doing it here for over 50 years and they are far and away my favourite company here in Berlin, so it's not as crazy as you may think. There's precedent.

Anyhow, one show was built on the music of Joe Raposo for the elementary school set. @Andre_DeShields did a piece for high schoolers on racism, told through classics of Harlem Jazz. And the third show is the subject of today's thread, #Blocks.

The early 90's were a heck of a time in education. You had the rise of the self-esteem movement, a brief recession followed by economic boom upon the collapse of the cold war, an end to 12 years of Republican reign. Things seemed to be on the up.

Of course, that wasn't so much the case if you were poor (remember the welfare queen panic?) or gay or in any sort of minority. The 90's were the first time sexual harassment got massive press attention and was still treated as a joke at times.

So Butler wanted to do a show about the things which affected pre-teens. To say they're not alone, that their concerns and problems are valid. The show would be 40-ish minutes, then there'd be a discussion after. Very proper and educational.

Ideally, the audience would go away learning to make choices that would build confidence and self-worth. A big job for a small musical.

Larson was brought on board through a friend of Butler's who was a regular at the Moondance Diner. His lyricist? A Broadway stalwart named Hal Hackady, known for his work on MINNIE'S BOYS, SNOOPY!!!, and TEDDY & ALICE.

Not who you'd expect to write a show which had to resemble a legit voice to the ears of 11-15 year olds, right? But he knew his way around scan and rhymes and Larson and the rest of the team would tweak and adjust.

Hackady would fax in lyrics, Larson would revise, and they'd go back and forth. By all accounts, it was pretty amiable on all sides. #Blocks would have its first run in 1993, doing a week at Westbeth Theatre Center, then a week in schools around New York.

The show was written with the roles simply numbered as 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. Actors addressed each other by their real names, the set was minimal, the music pre-recorded and the book thin: this was a revue on youth issues.

So far, so curio. It was a gig. But then (and this is where it will get interesting for most of you), it went out again in 1995. Same setup: a week at Westbeth, a week touring NYC schools. But this time, there were some names in the cast you'll likely recognise.

In addition to Amy Zimmerman and Rob Tate, there were three performers who'd go on to join the original Broadway cast of RENT. But let's reveal these one at a time and wait for someone to go "I wish this thing I did when I was 24 and broke would be buried forever."

I'm not going to do clips of all the songs because duh, but here are a few highlights. "Reasons to Fail" was about general early teen awkwardness and sung by Rodney Hicks. He had an amazing story to tell about doing the show, but you've got to buy the book to read it.

Rob Tate did a song about white working class toxic masculinity. In the 90's, "blue" still meant "blue collar."

Yassmin Alers played a slightly older character and something of a mentor figure to the others as a more experienced voice. Her song was about recovering from addiction.

And last but not least (though earlier in the running order), a song about domestic violence sung by @albinokid Anthony Rapp himself. The song was written and arranged in 93, and you can tell how much Larson loved the sound of Nirvana's In Utero.

After Larson's death, some of the songs from #Blocks were repurposed into another show called "I Make Me a Promise", but you'll have to read the book to find out more.

The whole project fascinates me and I'm genuinely curious if anyone remembers seeing this! /end