Be more chill (some spoilers)

Anyone seen this? I've seen both the play and musical version of this now, and admittedly I may be a little obsessed over it.

Which version have you seen, and if you've seen both- which did you prefer? Personally, I would say that I preferred the musical version.

Spoiler

It was actually a lot darker than I expected it to be, some of those plot twists really hit me hard.

I did not see the whole Rich being bisexual thing coming at all, in the play it just came across as understandable yet random (the fire) but after watching the musical it started to make more sense and damn did it go dark on that plot point when you think about the implications.

When you think about how much Rich's squib must've controlled him to the point of him wanting to commit suicide. To the point where his character changes so much when he's no longer possessed, he speaks and acts so differently.

The audience gets the impression that in Freshman year, Rich must've been fairly feminine with that lisp and often went ignored, but once he got his squib they changed all of that about him, gave him a more masculine persona and it's heavily implied that Rich's squib hides Rich's sexuality from him, (or at least stops him from going in that direction) most likely because his squib didn't want to risk Rich's popularity, or chill if you prefer.

I also have somewhat of a theory that Rich had a thing for Jeremy. Think about it, when he's first introduced he apologises to Jeremy by saying "I'm sorry for treating you badly, my squib told me to do it", and as an audience we just assume that's because Jeremy is unpopular and by picking on Jeremy he is able to gain popularity, but what if the squib picked up on Rich's possible feelings for Jeremy and knowing Jeremy's social status (and how some of the high school students saw gay/bi people as 'uncool') blocked Jeremy from his mind, and caused him to treat Jeremy unfairly?

It might explain why when he is freed he suddenly has a realisation that he's Bi. "Woah dude, I'm like really bi". I think the interesting thing about it is that at the start we don't really question why Rich has a squib (at least I didn't) but maybe it was something to do with his sexuality, gender expression, and his lisp.

I mean, it goes without saying that the people who took these pills deliberately are clearly insecure individuals, and Rich is no different despite appearing fairly confident on the outside.

It was a nice touch, having him occasionally break into a lisp whilst being under control, and it's very subtle and easy to miss. I guess there was some foreshadowing going on even there about him trying to free himself from his squib, and that there's more to Rich than he let's on.

Michael was my favourite character, simply because of his line "Michael makes an entrance!". That had me laughing for awhile.

If you haven't seen "Be more chill" I would highly recommend it, even just listening to the songs/soundtrack.

However, if you're sensitive and don't like dark comedy, or things that cover suicide and self-esteem issues/hatred (in both a comedic and also very real way at times) then I wouldn't suggest it. Also, there are some sexual themes, so there's that.

 

That's a tough question. I like quite a few of the songs, hmm... probably "Michael in the bathroom". Then again, "Voices in my head" is good too.