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!)