“Louder Than Words” by Jonathan Larson

The music video for “Louder Than Words”, one of the signature songs from the film, features young performing arts students from across the country performing the song together. The participating high schools include the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing & Visual Arts in Dallas, Texas, Baltimore School for the Arts in Baltimore, Maryland, The Chicago School for the Arts in Chicago, Illinois, Los Angeles County High School for the Arts in Los Angeles, California, and TADA! Youth Theater in New York City. They each perform at their high school and their shots are cut together to make up the music video.

The video starts with Lin-Manuel Miranda introducing the video, stating how he got his start in the world of theater at a performing arts school and stressing how important it is to support the next generation of artists. Then a black screen shows all the participating schools, followed by some establishing shots that show off their campuses. The song then begins and we hear the voices of various students performing. There are soloists and ensemble portions, but we mostly focus on the voices of ten or so kids. Throughout the video, we also see that many of these kids are wearing chucks. There are classic chucks, yellow chucks, even platform chucks. The video also includes Andre Garfield’s performance of the song from the film in a few key moments, which helps just tie it all together. This video is not only a great tribute to the film and the impact of theater but also to Jonathan Larson, showing the impact of his work nearly thirty years after his passing.