Picture: Maria-Baranova
Be More Chill continues at the Lyceum Theatre, New York.
Star rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Be More Chill has made it to Broadway with all its teenage angst pumping away and all the folks who helped the show prove its mettle Off-Broadway on board.
The show, whose history has become pretty much the stuff of showbiz legend, a tale of never-give-up-hope, was commissioned by and originally produced in 2015 by Two River Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey. The powerful New York Times travelled to see it but was unimpressed, and hopes for further life seemed quashed. But a cast album took off online, with lots of streaming; there were attention-getting non-professional mountings, and commercial producers were pretty sure they had a hit when they opened a limited nine-week run Off-Broadway this past summer. It was nearly sold out by opening night. And to be sure, Broadway aspirations were apparent in the elaborate high-tech mounting.
The musical, based on the young adult novel by the late Ned Vizzini, warns of the corrupting dangers of trying to be too popular in high school, combined with a caution against letting technology take us over.
The hormonal wackiness of the youthful storytelling in Joe Tracz’s book may leave some audiences of a certain age cold indeed. However, they may well be prompted to admire the fluidity of Stephen Brackett’s staging, seamlessly weaving in the infectiousness goofiness of Chase Brock’s choreography, and the theatrical validity composer and lyricist Joe Iconis has brought to his pop-rock score, revealing and heightening character as well as providing beat.
Furthermore, you have to admire the presumed gumption, courage and loyalty – or whatever – of the producers and principal creators in keeping together for the big move to Broadway the entire 10-person Off-Broadway cast, several of its members long-time colleagues of Iconis in his concert and cabaret performances. Along with the computer-age aura of Beowulf Boritt’s set design, their deliveries fill without strain the capacious and venerable Lyceum Theatre, and they continue to convince as mega-energised teenagers.
Anchoring the antics is Will Roland’s sympathetic portrayal of Jeremy, the self-described loser who learns about a clandestine pill from Japan that can guide you into being more than cool. It can make you chill. The pill is a super-computer, and once inside your body, swallowed with a gulp of green Mountain Dew soda pop, it aims to take over your brain. Furthermore, it advises Jeremy that to be popular he must abandon his equally nerdy but upbeat best pal, Michael, portrayed by a pitch-perfect George Salazar.
A high point continues to be Roland’s powerful rendering of Jeremy’s Act I closer, ‘Loser Geek Whatever’, describing all the things he doesn’t want be anymore. Equally impressive is Salazar’s signature Act II aria, ‘Michael in the Bathroom,’ detailing the character’s despair at losing Jeremy’s friendship and his comfort in hanging out in the loo at a big school party.
As the personification of the computer pill known as the Squip, Jason Tam is Matrix-like sleek as well as threatening, while Stephanie Hsu makes extreme gaucheness lovable as Christine, the co-ed who has captured Jeremy’s heart.
Other student body personalities are embodied with unquenchable relish by Britton Smith, Katlyn Carlson, Lauren Marcus, Gerard Canonico and Tiffany Mann. The only adult characters on hand are Jeremy’s hapless Dad, the shoe store employee who secretly peddles the Squip and the flamboyant high school drama teacher, all distinctively defined by Jason Sweettooth Williams.
As the show joins the cadre of other Main Stem titles aimed at budding theatre-goers rather than the September-song audiences who ordinarily fill a lot of the Broadway seats, how the box office will eventually fare remains open to question, but it has certainly made the move with more than its share of chill.
Ron Cohen
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