Be More Chill

Be More Chill, a new musical by Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz, is a high energy show full of punchy musical numbers, with a modern but moving script and lyrics. Performed earlier this year by MMS at The Black Box Theatre as the Australian Premiere production, this production is the return season on the larger stage at the Star of The Sea Theatre.

The plot features student Jeremy Heere, an unpopular nerd as seen by other students, aching to be popular and wanting to win the heart of Christine Canigula.

Jeremy doesn't know what to say to Christine and stumbles over his words every time he sees her. He enjoys playing video games with his best friend Michael Mell. Another student Rich tells Jeremy about a pill called a “Squip” he can buy that will tell him everything he needs to do become popular and win the girl of his dreams. Jeremy goes along with this scheme, at first to positive effect, but then disastrous events occur. 

Manly's production, directed by Sam Ducker, was invigorating and seemed to push a lot of boundaries of the theatre space. The cast all gave very physical performances, playing the caricatures of the school jock, popular girls and nerds perfectly. Joseph Nalty's choreography was a great spectacle and fitted the style of the show perfectly. The dancing looked very advanced and seemed to push the actors, who performed it extremely well. Vocally, all the cast sounded very strong together under the musical direction of James McAtamney, although the sound from the microphones was up too high and feedback was heard during a few numbers. There were a few stand out numbers by lead cast members like “Two Player Game” by Jeremy and Michael and “The Pitiful Children” by The Squip and Company.

Stand out performances in the production came from many of the lead roles including Luke Arthur as Jeremy. Luke played the dorky/nerdy Jeremy brilliantly and the change to the confident/ cooler Jeremy transition worked really well. Luke was vocally one of the best on stage and only faulted slightly with some of the extremely high notes. Isaac Broadbent acted the equally nerdy friend Michael outstandingly and stood out in his solo number “Michael in The Bathroom”. Charlize Spillane and Laura Banning, as the two bitchy popular girls Chloe and Brooke, both commanded the stage when delivering lines and excelled in all dance numbers. Abby Van Balkom played love interest/ socially awkward Christine to perfection and filled the stage with her energy and comical brilliance. Keira Connelly produced a standing ovation worthy performance as the Evil Squip, with the physicality she brought to the role as well as her exceptional voice, displayed in numbers “Be More Chill” and “The Pitiful Children”.

The set was very minimal but effective and the use of a costumed and skilled stage crew, managed by Hannah Palmer, made sure changes flowed, while absence of blackouts helped the pace of the show.

James McAtamney's eight piece band sounded incredible and gave Joe Iconis’ score the full rocking sound it deserved.

Sam Ducker and his cast and crew have all excelled in every aspect of bringing this new and exciting musical to our shores and I'm sure it won’t be the last production of it on the Amateur Theatre circuit. 

James Russell

Photographer: Jim Muir.