"If you fed Dear  Evan Hansen to the Little Shop Of Horrors plant, you would get Be More Chill."
Be More Chill is a new Broadway musical inspired by Ned Vizzini’s novel Be More Chill, with music and lyrics written by Joe Iconis and a book made by Joe Tracz and a lot of modern technology robbing every teenagers attention.

Anxiety and awkwardness lingers within every teenager today and in the musical Be More Chill, Jeremy Heere is the exact embodiment of that. In this modernized, highschool set we are following the life of Jeremy Heere in his gruesome journey through high school as he’s constantly being bullied in the hallway and it’s physically impossible for him to talk to his crush Christine Canigula even after his best friend Michael Mell has repeatedly pumped him up to do so. After a play rehearsal, Jeremy has an encounter with his significantly shorter hallway bully, Rich, where he learns about this S.Q.U.I.P, a “grey oblong pill” that implants in your brain and how it can help him rule by telling him what to do. There’s a catch though, to activate it, you must have green Mountain Dew. At first, the S.Q.U.I.P is a miracle worker but then it takes a twisty turn. Wanting world domination, The S.Q.U.I.P convinces Jeremy to give one to everybody in school, referring to them as the “pitiful children.”. Jeremy realizes his error and the only way to deactivate it is by drinking Mountain Dew red which can only be found in the hands of his faithful, stoner friend, Michael Mell.

As expected, some things did change a little in the musical. At the end of the book, the S.Q.U.I.P admits that he failed Jeremy and tells Jeremy that the best he can do is deactivate him but not before Jeremy’s crush knows why he had been acting up around her, however, in the musical the S.Q.U.I.P refuses to leave and taunts Jeremy that without him, he will go back to being the loser freak he once was. In the book, Jeremy’s crush, Christine Canigula, is a little more wild, crazier, she parties hard, she is hard to get at, and has a lot of sass to her personality, yet in the musical they take that away and she’s more bubbly, she is more on the artistic side, romantic and oblivious. Only one thing did she not lose and that was how she was able to speak up about her opinions. In the musical, they take away Jeremy’s mother figure, leaving him to be with a dad who doesn’t really care about where his son wanders off, is a wannabe soldier and can’t zip up his own pants to save his own life as opposed to being the successful divorce attorney he was with his overprotective, motherly wife.

The album is edgy, exciting and hits topics that you rarely stop to think about, making them the most comedic songs of today’s digital age. From the song More Than Survive where Jeremy can be a little bit too honest about his morning to Michael In The Bathroom when we see Michael’s sobbing fest about how he is upset about losing his long life, video gaming friend, Jeremy, Be More Chill is more than likely to get you and poke at your feelings one way or another.

In the past two years, high school based musicals with an eerie story have been blowing up.  If you are a fan of the musicals Dear Evan Hansen, Mean Girls, Heathers, Spring Awakening, Little Shop of Horrors or Sweeney Todd then Be More Chill will continue the freaky, plot twisting fun for you.

Lizzet Bravo