Jeremy is unpopular and dorky, but his unpopularity isn’t ethereal. Iconis and Tracz’ creation, adapted from Ned Vizzini’s book of the same name, succeeds in injecting some irreverence into its medium, a particular weirdness to its characters-not vacant eccentricity, but definition-that feels somehow new to its genre. Yet, I hesitate to put Be More Chill squarely within the mold that Dear Evan Hansen popularized, Mean Girls commercialized and The Prom piggy-backed. On Broadway, Be More Chill looks a lot like its new-musical peers-sleek and shiny, sardonically teen-focused, duty-bound by the aesthetic eclecticism of today’s youth and built by a score that sounds nearly like a 2008 Vampire Weekend mixtape turned itself into a musical. It ran for four weeks, but its cast album, through whatever YouTube and Tumblr algorithmic alchemy, became a viral phenomenon, amassing an army of fans across the globe that’s ushered this techno story of teenage angst first to a sold-out run off-Broadway last summer and now to the Lyceum Theatre. The musical first opened at the Two River Theater in New Jersey in 2015. It works, and as Jeremy’s squip takes him to the top of suburban New Jersey high school hierarchy, hairstyle and friends swapped out, the computer’s destructive and evolving potential threatens to take over the entire school, one malleable mind at a time-a sci-fi parable of digital life and teenage insecurity.īut, like its protagonist, Be More Chill is itself a strange product of human creation and digital life, coming to Broadway with an already viral following. Take a breath and seal the deal,” the lyrics go. “Gotta get an upgrade-don’t worry about the guilt you feel. Take the pill, called a “squip,” manifested by an anime-inspired, Keanu Reeves-esque mentor in his mind (Jason Tam), obey its instructions and the paralyzing social anxiety that comes with being a high school teenager melts into swagger. Jeremy (Will Roland), hopelessly insecure and anxious, learns from his school bully-once a nerd, too-about an ingestible supercomputer that’ll take control of his brain and make him cool. Then the musical ends.īut never has a play gone the way of this well-trodden path via brain-implanted computer domination, as is the case with Be More Chill, Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz viral sensation turned Broadway musical, now open at the Lyceum Theatre.īoth in life and art, the lines between digital and real existence blur in Be More Chill. Sandy learns to be cool by smoking cigarettes and wearing leather pants. I never quite understood how Grease so successfully defied this model. A nerdy, unpopular kid, desperate for social capital, makes a radical transformation, realizes his or her mistake and learns to be themselves again. The high school musical’s calling card has always been the “be yourself” thematic.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |