Do You Even Squip?

I'm sure I'll have another post about this musical, as I'm seeing a local production of it later this month. But the Broadway show is closing next week, so it seems to be a good time to talk about it. The show in question? Be More Chill.

Be More Chill is a musical (loosely) based on the YA novel of the same name by Ned Vizzini. Knowing this, I read the book earlier this year and HATED it. The book was written 10 years ago, and it would not fly as a YA book today. It was misogynist and very Straight White Dude. So while I knew that the musical had a cult following and teens adored it, I wondered how it differed from the disaster of a book.

As far as the book goes, it tells the story of Jeremy Heere, a middle of the road nerd who isn't a total loser, but definitely isn't popular. His parents are divorce lawyers but deeply in love, and he lives next door to the school. His best friend is Michael, who is on the same loser level as he, but he "does well with Asian chicks." (Yes, this is what the book says. These are the things that stood out to me.) He's in love/obsessed with Christine for some reason, but she doesn't really have any qualities other than being the girl he's obsessed with. Blah blah blah. He finds out about a supercomputer that comes in a pill called a Squip. You take it, it implants in your brain, and it helps you become cool. He gets one. The Squip tells him to fool around with these other girls, blah blah misogyny.

But the musical is better. First of all, the music was written by Joe Iconis. (He wrote some of the music on Smash, which I really wish lasted longer than it did.) And the music is catchy. The cast is diverse, and I had read that they were all listed as principals and none were considered ensemble. Jeremy is white, but Christine, Michael, and The Squip are Asian-American. (Though, when I saw it, Christine was played by the understudy who was African-American.) Michael is played by George Salazar, and I'm obsessed with him now. He is by far the best part of the show. Michael is also possibly on the queer spectrum. Christine is a more fleshed-out character, though she's basically a manic-pixie-dream-girl. Jeremy's parents are divorced, and he only has a depressed, loser dad who can't do anything since his wife left.

The show is compared to Little Shop of Horrors, and I see why. The Squip basically becomes Audrey II. That's all I'll say to avoid major spoilers.

The set was incredible, though the lights kind of gave me a headache. And there was lots of Theremin, because the Theremin means sci-fi. I'm really interested to see how the local theatre does it without the Broadway sets.

 

I admit, I started the show hating it. It opens with Jeremy trying to get his internet porn to load before school. That is the very first thing. So of course I thought it was going to be like the book. But I slowly went from hating it to not hating it to liking it. I won't say it was my favorite, but it was definitely interesting. I also lucked out on seeing a Wednesday night performance (thanks to Broadway Roulette). The Wednesday night shows had composer Joe Iconis come out and sing a song with someone. That night it was performer Alice Ripley. They sang a song about enthusiasm. It basically went, "If you like it, tell me you fucking like it." The cast was in the background singing along and swaying. So it was a fun time. The show did so well Off-Broadway that I'm sad to see it close so soon. (It only opened in March, I believe.) But it also means there's another theatre open for more new things. (For example, when Waitress closes next year at the Brooks Atkinson, Six is moving in! I'm so happy!)




 

Isn't It Overrated?

Now when it comes to musicals, everyone has a favorite. I, for one, have seen Wicked at least 4 times. Some people prefer classics while others only like contemporary. The story is important to me, at least, but many a classic musical has gotten away with a weak book because it had some catchy songs. But there are some songs that are so overdone, overrated, or just plain bad. And here is where I get snarky.

(Warning: when I get depressed, I get irrationally angry. That's what this post is. Also, there is some language.)

Okay, I'm just going to start at the top (bottom) of my list. My most hated. The song that makes me want to rip my ears off and kill someone with them. (Look, I feel strongly about things.) That song is "Tomorrow." Yes, from Annie. First of all, fuck Annie. As a child of the 80s, I was primed to be one of those little girls obsessed with this musical, but I WASN'T. (For the record, I wanted to be Punky Brewster as a wee child and became obsessed with Grease. Not that the two are related.) I have seen the movie, and my junior year of high school, it was our spring musical. But you couldn't pay me to watch that shit again. I mean, I hate kids. I don't want to watch a bunch of kids singing. I just don't. And "Tomorrow" is the most saccharine sweet piece of crap ever. Unfortunately, *everyone* loves to sing it, so you hear it in cabaret shows and concerts. No. Don't do that, lovely Tony award winning actress. You are not a precocious ten year old. You're a grown ass woman.

*Ahem*

So yes, I have thoughts. Sticking with classics, this is a show I have never seen, but the songs are so ingrained in popular culture that I know enough to hate them. I could possibly give this one a chance - at least the movie because of the cast - but I haven't yet. And it is The Sound of Music. In a church New Year's Eve show, I played one of the Von Trap kids and had to sing the "Do Re Mi" song. (I don't even know if that's the name.) But I hated it, and I was maybe ten. I just - no. Same with "My Favorite Things." And that song is covered to hell and back. And WHY is it a Christmas song? The only thing that I can think of to make it remotely Christmasy is that it mentions packages. But packages do not a Christmas song make!

Then we come to a musical that I love. I know many of the songs by heart. But one song is just particularly bad. I was late to the Rent party - my best friend would listen to the OBC recording over and over in the early 2000s, so I got to be familiar with it. Sadly, I saw the movie first when it came out. Then I saw it on Broadway in 2005, and Maureen was a BLONDE. I had problems with that. Anyway. Now that I'm older, I see the story differently. After watching Rent: (Not So) Live! I wanted to be like, "Get a job!" Benny was the villain, but he was trying to help. Ya know, it's easy to just live off your art if you're wealthy, but broke people gotta eat. Anyway... Roger spends his whole life trying to write that one song. And really? "Your Eyes" is the best he could come up with? That's the song you skip when listening to the recording. "One Song Glory" is way better.

And now we come to the Andrew Lloyd Webber portion of the program. Yes he's done a lot, blah, blah, blah, but he's overrated. Since Cats is gonna be a movie (why after 30+ years? I don't know), we have to talk about "Memory" - quite possibly the most overdone musical number. Who hasn't sung "Memory" in the past 30+ years? Cats is kind of the gateway drug to theatre. Even if you don't go to the theatre, you've seen Cats. The literature nerd in me loves that it's based on T.S. Eliot poems, which I've read. I mean, don't get me wrong. Cats was the first show I ever saw as a kid (I made my parents take me in sixth grade), and I'm totally going to see it when it comes back to Nashville this fall. But we really never need to hear "Memory" ever again.

And don't even get me started on Phantom of the Opera. I saw it on Broadway earlier this year because I had never seen it, and I don't know how it's been going on for 30+ years. Also, I watched it through the eyes of a feminist in 2019; it was not a love story. It was two different men trying to control her. Sigh.

When I love something, I really love it. When I don't... well, you see.

Theatre to Transport You

While theatre is my current main obsession, it's not my only obsession. I also love books and Disney World. All three are similar because whether you see a show, read a book, or go to Disney World, you are taken to another place. For a brief moment, the real world doesn't exist. I think we can all use a break from the real world sometimes.

Last weekend, we buried my uncle. He had been sick a while, but death is always sudden. Fortunately, I saw some light theatre to take my mind of things.

On Friday night, I saw Charley's Aunt at the Roxy Regional Theatre in Clarksville. It's a British comedic play about mistaken identity. It's about two college friends who are in love with two women. Both want to propose, but the girls are about to go to Scotland for the summer. One of the guys, Charley, receives a telegram from his aunt whom he's never met but who has been paying for his school, saying she is visiting. The guys use the excuse of meeting his aunt (who will chaperone) to invite the girls over for lunch. Only the aunt is running late. So they get their buddy to dress up as the aunt, and hilarity ensues. Well, not so much hilarity as small chuckles. It was cute. I wasn't crying from laughing. Cute actually is the best description for most of the other things I saw.

Saturday after the funeral, I saw Zombie Prom: Atomic Edition at Street Theatre Company. It was part of their Class Act division made up of teens. It tells the story of good-girl Toffee (all the girls have food names) who falls in love with bad-boy Jonny (no H) - a kid from the wrong side of the tracks and no family to speak of. He dares to question the rigid authority, and that's the only thing that makes him bad. After a few months of dating, Toffee's parents forbid their love, sending Jonny to ride his motorcycle into the nuclear power plant. But two weeks later, after being buried at sea, he returns as a zombie. This musical was silly and fun. I had seen the leads in May in the Class Act production of Spring Awakening, and they are really talented.

Sunday, I went to see Newsies, which I had never seen before, but good lord, every local theatre is doing or has done it in the past year. (Along with Mamma Mia, which I'll be seeing in August.) Newsies was put on by a group called Audience of One in Lebanon. I had never seen anything with them, and I went in with zero expectations. I actually thought it was another teen group, but I was wrong. And hot damn - they were amazing. Of course it's dance heavy, and I think it could go wrong in so many ways. But the cast was phenomenal.

Then this week, I worked the weekend. That means I didn't have as much time to see shows, but I did see one. Pipeline Collective put on a play called The World Over - a hero's journey that showed all but one actor playing multiple characters. The main character, Adam, is found on a deserted island and goes on a quest to find his country which is believed to just be a fairytale. He goes through traditional trials and meets a multitude of people along the way. Throughout the stories, historians pop up with maps and found bits to show us "proof" of his journey. With the multiple (crazy) characters and outlandish accents, it was very Monty Python. The entire cast was incredibly talented, and I'll admit that I got a little teary at the end.

Next weekend I'll be seeing a handful of shows, and the following weekend I'm back to New York to see The Cher Show before it closes. (Yes, I am literally going for the weekend just to see The Cher Show. But I'll see at least 2 others while I'm there.)

Plays vs. Musicals

I am a musical girl. I know some people can't suspend the disbelief that people burst into song, but that's the BEST PART! My brother recently took a trip to New York and saw his first Broadway show, and I was so proud. He saw Beautiful with Vanessa Carlton. He really liked it because, "The songs were them writing or being performed - they didn't just burst into song for no reason." Okay.

Musicals can go light or serious, but a good chunk of plays are pretty heavy. I prefer the lightness. Though on my last trip to New York, I saw two comedy plays - Hillary and Clinton at the Golden Theatre, and the closing performance of Gary: A Sequel to Titus Andronicus at the Booth. (Side note: when you hear "Booth" and "theatre" you automatically think "John Wilkes" who assassinated Lincoln. The Booth Theatre was named for his brother who was a famous actor.)

HC was labeled a comedy, yet it was still serious, and it left me feeling resigned. But I laughed a lot. The play asks you to think about the endless possibilities and the endless outcomes in the infinite number of universes that could be out there. The play was one version of a woman named Hillary who was running for president in 2008 and one way that it may have gone. Laurie Metcalfe is amazing. So is John Lithgow, but the first role I remember seeing him in was on Third Rock From the Sun, so no matter what role he's doing, I still see a bit of that alien.

I knew going into Gary that it was crude. And yes, it was dick and fart jokes galore. That's not my kind of comedy. It takes plays immediately after the end of Titus Andronicus - the civil war is over, death is everywhere, and two servants are left to clean up the mess. It did have an out there, wacky, surreal, Monty Python-esque feel to it, that I enjoyed. And I wanted to see Nathan Lane and a closing performance. Both Julie White, and Kristine Nielsen got Tony noms for their performances, and rightly so. They were brilliant. If you've ever seen Absolutely Fabulous, White's character of Carol reminded me a lot of Bubbles. But it was a metaphor for society, as art often is. The overarching theme was, you can try to keep your head down and get by and be content with the way things are, or you can decide to change the world and try to make it a better place for all.

Last weekend I went to a local production of Little Foxes at the Murfreesboro Little Theatre. I took a class on modern American drama in grad school (I have an English degree), and I know I had read it, but I remembered very little about the play. I just knew greed. And it was all about greedy family. It made me think of some people in power, even though it takes place in 1900. It was difficult to watch, but not as difficult as the play I saw the week before.

Maidens, put on by the Tennessee Playwrights Studio at Darkhorse Theatre, was literally about Nazis. Based on real people, the play focused on two Nazi women after they've been prosecuted and condemned to hang for their crimes. One, Jenny, happily wears her evil on the outside, and the other, Elizabeth, maintains her innocence throughout. We see flashbacks to the concentration camp - the company used three actors in all black body suits as multiple characters throughout. We don't see Elizabeth doing anything, but by the end, she is in the audience yelling that we are vermin and not people and have no rights. The two hang at the end, and I felt no sympathy at all. You can't sympathize with Nazis. However, the last image of the play was actual photos of the women hanging. That was hard to see. But at the same time, I've visited a concentration camp, a work camp, and a holding town. I've seen photos of those poor people, stood in the room where they were crushed together worse than sardines, walked passed the gas chambers where they lost their lives. That was harder to see.

So yes. My experience with plays tends to be heavy. And I try to stay away from heavy, emotional musicals. Give me the happy song and dance for no reason. Take to away to a place of happiness and song.

SIX

I have the goal of seeing 100 plays/musicals this year. It's mid-July, and I'm in the 60s, so it's safe to say I will make this goal. There is a ton of theatre to see in my area, but there's even more if I take a trip. I had heard about Six probably on the Playbill website. As soon as I saw the premise, I knew I HAD to see it. It's been playing in London for a little bit, and it's now at the Chicago Shakespeare Theatre for a few more weeks before transferring to Boston. (It's supposed to be going to Broadway next year - fingers crossed!) I went to Chicago over Memorial Day (so I wouldn't have to take off work) in order to see it.

 

Divorced, Beheaded, Died. Divorced, Beheaded, Survived.

 

Six could be described as the West End's answer to Hamilton. It's a historical pop concert extraordinaire. Six tells the story of Henry the VII's six wives. But imagine they're the Spice Girls. They all get together to tell their stories in a pop concert. No longer in the shadow of the husband they shared, each one if vying for the prize of "who had it worse?" Each queen sings her song of herstory and is based on a different pop diva (or a combination of some.) You get vibes of Beyoncé, Avril Lavigne, Adele, Britney, Ariana. And with the exception of Jane Seymour (the only one he ever loved) who has a slow Adele type song, every song is a party that makes you want to dance. (Note: the London cast recording is available to purchase or stream wherever you tend to do those things. I highly recommend it. In fact, I was so obsessed once I saw the show that I listened to it nonstop for about 3 days. My coworkers were probably so sick if it.)

 

I had great seats. I was way off to the side, but I was really close. Plus I didn't spend much at all. I love feminist retellings of things. I love the whole "girl power" motif. The women grow as people (I hesitate to say characters since they are based on real people) throughout the show. I went into the show knowing Anne Boleyn was beheaded, but that was about it. I learned some herstory (side note: I hate the word herstory, but it really fits for this musical.) The last song sums it up so well.

 

"One of a kind, no category.

Too many years lost in his story."

 

For all of history, these women have been known only by their marriages to the same man. I love that we live in a time where other aspects of history are being studied. So much has been left out, and we're not getting the full picture.



For the last part, the cast encourages you to take out your phones. That's how I have this picture. The all-women band is called The Ladies-in-Waiting, too. Isn't that awesome? If you can get to Chicago in the next couple of weeks, go see this show at the Shakespeare Theatre. Or if Boston is more convenient, go see it there once it transfers. I know I 'll have to go see it again.

Introduction

So why have I decided to create a blog about theatre? I don't know if this is a big thing that's out there; I haven't looked. I do know that I have thoughts, and maybe my Twitter rants could be fleshed out a little bit.

A little bit about me. I'm a 30something woman in Nashville, TN. We're not just country music. I'm so fortunate to live in a place with a thriving art scene. In addition to being home to TPAC (Tennessee Performing Arts Center) which has a Broadway series, the Nashville area has over 15 different local theatre groups. I'm sure there are even more that I haven't discovered yet. So I go to the theatre whenever I can. I also love to travel, and as of mid-June, I've visited NYC 3 times in 2019 just to see shows. (I have another quick weekend trip booked in August so I can see The Cher Show before it closes.)

I'm a full-time pharmacy technician and a part-time college English teacher. I love to read, and while theatre is my current obsession, books are high up there, too. I'm also addicted to Disney, and I love my cat. And I have depression and anxiety, which could explain why I'm constantly searching out distractions and escape.

I'll use this blog to post reviews of shows I've seen. I'll try to do that right after I see them, though I plan on posting about shows I've already seen - my memory sucks, and I fear the post will just become, "I loved it! It was great!" I will work on that. As someone who spent way too much time in school and would be a professional student if possible, I'm also going to explore similar themes that I've found and rant about things that are left out. I realize this blog will most likely just be for me, and that's okay.

-Kayla