Be More Chill Off-Broadway Official Thread

[dearalanaaaa]

Posted: 7/21/18 at 6:54pm

I thought I might as well start the thread, since it starts previews Thursday! Who's going, and what are your thoughts going in?
Personally, I think the casting is very strong but the content is... Not as strong. And the fanbase will be terrifying to see at the show. Probably at least one incident will happen before the end of previews. Anybody else seeing it? I snagged for first preview!

Updated On: 7/22/18 at 06:54 PM

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/21/18 at 7:31pm

I’m volunteer-ushering the show in late August. And may god have mercy on my soul.

[ilysespieces]

Posted: 7/21/18 at 8:43pm

I am so excited for this to open because I am looking forward to the stories posted here.

[BOM]

Posted: 7/21/18 at 8:45pm

I'm seeing this in August. Should I be worried? 

[thealtoslament]

Posted: 7/21/18 at 9:15pm

I'm seeing this August 5. I'm a fan of the show and the material-- I'm right in that late high school-college age demographic the show appeals to and a recovering member of the online Fandom™ --and I'm excited to see it live (especially with about half of the original cast returning), but I will pray/think good thoughts for those of you who are interested in the show and don't know about how rabid the fanbase is. Looking forward (in a kind of masochistic way) to some insane stories. 

[dearalanaaaa]

Posted: 7/21/18 at 9:18pm

thealtoslament said: "I'm right in that late high school-college age demographic the show appeals to and a recovering member of the online Fandom™--and I'm excited to see it live (especially with about half of the original cast returning), those of you who are interested in the show and don't know about how rabid the fanbase is. Looking forward (in a kind of masochistic way) to some insane stories."

Me too. It's kind of morbid how some of us did like the show (me last year too, April and May)  and look back to see the awful fanbase- and how repetitive it got (at least to me). The only worry I have is how some of the original cast did kind of age a bit to be in the show as high schoolers.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 7/21/18 at 9:32pm

BOM said: "I'm seeing this in August. Should I be worried?"

Yup.

[Gink]

Posted: 7/21/18 at 10:21pm

I've only seen it done once at a local college, I didn't love the book--musical book, not the novel--but there are some fun songs. My daughter and I loved Will Roland in DEH and George Salazar's 'Michael in the Bathroom' online, so we got tickets for late August. I'm hoping/assuming it's better than what we saw. I hope they improved the book.

[BroadwayNoob]

Posted: 7/21/18 at 11:48pm

I really love Will Roland, and I enjoy George Salazar but I don't love this musical and I already know the audience will be a disaster because the fandom is a hot mess. I won't be in attendance for this one

[ethan231h]

Posted: 7/21/18 at 11:55pm

seeing this in mid august! very excited for the show....not the fan girls. 

[yesraccoons]

Posted: 7/22/18 at 12:00am

Seeing it August 2nd. Curious to see how it’s received by its stans. Will people not like Will roland?

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/22/18 at 12:21am

Ok, so I have some genuine questions about all of this, which require some context. I hope those of you have have personal experience with the fandom can shed some light in this: 

I was studying abroad in London from September 2016 to Spring 2017. Before I left, I had never heard of BMC. When I got back, suddenly I was hearing about it everywhere. And not only was I hearing about the show, but I was suddenly hearing about this infamous fandom. Ever since I found out about the show, I've been assuming that the show premiered during my time in London (late 2016 or early 2017), but now I see that it premiered in 2015, which is also when the cast recording was released. And according to Wikipedia, there hasn't been another major production of the show since 2015. So my questions are:

 

1. Did something happen during my time abroad that sparked the sudden popularity of it? If so, what? Or is it all just a weird coincidence that the show never once crossed my path before I left for London? 

2. How did a show that premiered in 2015 at a not-that-prominent regional theatre, with no NYC production, gain such a rabid cult following? I've never heard of a show getting so popular in an out-of-town run. 

3. What exactly makes the fandom so much more insane than other fandoms? How and why is it so much worse than say other fandoms like Evan Hansen, Comet, Newsies, Mean Girls, etc.? What sorts of incidents are people referring to when they call it a "mess" or whatever. 

[RippedMan]

Posted: 7/22/18 at 1:07am

I think the fandom is mild. It's premiering in NYC at a small theater off-Broadway. It's not even at a venue that has a marquee, etc. Maybe this is an incubator production to see what the demand is, but I don't think Signature would allow a long-running musical in their space. 

[dearalanaaaa]

Posted: 7/22/18 at 1:24am

JBroadway said: 
"1. Did something happen during my time abroad that sparked the sudden popularity of it? If so, what? Or is it all just a weird coincidence that the show never once crossed my path before I left for London?

It's not just you! When the sudden influx of Dear Evan Hansen, Heathers and Hamilton fans came in, they all wanted a show with stronger LGBT themes. Why they chose this? I have no idea. They started drawing Tumblr ship art (actually it was the second most popular musical of 2017 on Tumblr) of Michael and Jeremy. I'm not sure of what sparked it, but that's what I think

2. How did a show that premiered in 2015 at a not-that-prominent regional theatre, with no NYC production, gain such a rabid cult following? I've never heard of a show getting so popular in an out-of-town run.

Nobody knows. Number one is again, my theory. 


3. What exactly makes the fandom so much more insane than other fandoms? How and why is it so much worse than say other fandoms like Evan Hansen, Comet, Newsies, Mean Girls, etc.? What sorts of incidents are people referring to when they call it a "mess" or whatever."

Many, many reasons. Let me start with the fact that there's a whole blog dedicated to messaging the cast about anything their hearts desire. Most sane people separate the cast from the show but not these people. Also, there are all of the kink blogs (which I won't link here, but they exist). The obsession of the fandom with bootlegs? I mean- who in their right mind publicly asks for those? I get that the cast is inviting this but it's still very unethical. In the early Be More Chill days (where the fandom was tolerable at best) there was a "holy quad" dedicated to "worshipping" Salazar on Instagram. They got a lot of hate but again, not the brightest idea to call yourselves holy. 2 of them still run their Salazar blogs today. I didn't even dent into all of the creepy underage porn fictions the fandom makes.

All in all: The fandom is really problematic, even when compared to Hansen and Mean Girls stans. There will be too many incidents where the cast will be harmed, and nobody wants that. The door will be a mess. I'd avoid that door at all costs (and the street, especially on opening night, closing night and first preview). I wish no ill will upon anybody involved with the show or attending, just that we all know how demonic it will be.

All of the links are generally safe for work, even though they may lead to other links. No bootleg link was directly posted here either. Or a porn fic. 

[Br0adway]

Posted: 7/22/18 at 8:12am

I have tickets for late September. I know nothing about the show. We bought tickets to support Will Roland because we thought he was great in DEH.

I don’t remember anything about this musical while in college. I also went to a very small liberal arts college and commuted so I wasn’t on campus for more than 4 hours at a time. I graduated in 2014 so maybe it became popular after I graduated?

I can’t see stage door being any worse then DEH with Ben Platt. That was horrible to walk through trying to leave the theatre and get to my bus at Port Authority. Plus the theatre BMC is kind of off to the side and out of the action.

I can’t wait to read thoughts and reviews here. We have one of the shows during the last weekend so we’ve got a long wait.

[greenifyme2]

Posted: 7/22/18 at 9:54am

I’m going on a weekday mid August.... here’s hoping the audience will be better than expected since everyone thinks it will be such a disaster. But I’ll brace myself and be happy with anything better than disaster.
I think watching Salazar sing “Michael in the Bathroom” will be worth the price of admission.

[michaelhale]

Posted: 7/22/18 at 4:25pm

My theory is that the first week will be bad in terms of just a really rowdy audience and general disregard for standard NYC theatre etiquette and then the "fandom" will get dragged to hell and back for it and shamed into calming down haha.

I got my tickets for early September, super looking forward to it although I hope they have fixed the book. Really not impressed with how much they're using the Jeremy/Michael shipping in their marketing if they're just going to keep the same ending. In general the ending kind of falls apart, IMO.

Also Re: "Is the fandom worse than DEH/Heather's/Etc", no, it's not. It's a younger fandom (as in age-wise), sure, but the others can be just as immature. The worrisome thing is that for the other properties; the fandom is only a small subset of the theatergoers. You can go to DEH and only a small margin ofthe audience will be "fandom kids". For BMC there is, expected to be, more "fandom kids" than adult theatergoers attending. So instead of just a small portion of kids who can read the room and learn the etiquette from those older and more seasoned theatergoers around them, there may be whole rows or sections just full of people just, say, whipping out their phones to take a boot because the person next to them is doing it and so forth. Went to a concert recently that said no recording, but of course everyone did because it's a concert and everyone was doing it, this is the sort of fear I believe, that everyone's just going to be acting out so everyone will be acting out. The recent regional production last year in Jersey apparently had an awful audience, from what I'd heard. I was glad the kids seeing it had fun, but also glad I was not in attendance, ha.

[JBroadway]

Posted: 7/22/18 at 5:05pm

The funny thing about all these comments about bad audience behavior is: 

The Signature Center is a stomping ground for some of the worst ELDERLY theatre goers I've encountered. Almost every time I'm there I hear at least 3 phone rings from people who don't bother to turn them off. And worst of all are the older couples who will just talk out loud to each other during the show, without any regard for the people around them. 

I'm not sure if there will be many older people at BMC since it's not produced by Signature or New Group, so they don't have a subscriber audience. But if that crowd does show up simply because they see everything at the Signature Center, it would be very interesting to see how they interact with the younger crowd. 

Also, regarding the stage-door: the signature center "stage-door" is inside, so actors come out and greet people in the spacious lobby. Which means that, unless they have a rope to block off a fan waiting area (which I've never seen them do at this venue), it will just be a free for all. But luckily the sidewalk outside is spacious, so if they want to push the stage-doorers out there, it is unlikely to block people's way too much. 
 

Updated On: 7/22/18 at 05:05 PM

[Kad]

Posted: 7/22/18 at 5:21pm

Yeah, I was going to bring up that point about the stage door (or lack thereof). It’s a shared common space encompassing a cafe, a bookstore, a waiting area, and the entrances to ALL of the theatre spaces in the complex- the only way actors have to enter and leave is through here. There’s no way to crowd control a “stagedoor” scenario.

The fan base of Be More Chill is one of the weirdest things. I have no idea how it caught on, even taking into account it has a cast recording (many obscure shows have cast recordings, after all).

[dearalanaaaa]

Posted: 7/22/18 at 5:38pm

JBroadway said: "The Signature Center is a stomping ground for some of the worst ELDERLY theatre goers I've encountered. Almost every time I'm there I hear at least 3 phone rings from people who don't bother to turn them off. 

Also, regarding the stage-door: the signature center "stage-door" is inside, so actors come out and greet people in the spacious lobby. Which means that, unless they have a rope to block off a fan waiting area (which I've never seen them doat this venue), it will just be a free for all. "

That makes it somewhat more terrifying... I'm "dooring" it for Will Roland (Very kind man, I've met him 3 times and he remembered my name so?) And if there are no barricades I can imagine fangirls steamrolling them all over (and they're short). I'll brave the room and report back. Even the June 8 meet and greet was hectic after all!

 

[BroadwayConcierge]

Posted: 7/22/18 at 5:48pm

I am not purchasing a ticket to this because the fanbase has already displayed strong parallels to those of Heathers and Dear Evan Hansen, both of which I strongly loath. So I'm taking my cue and bowing out of this one. Hope everybody enjoys it!

[LesWickedly]

Posted: 7/22/18 at 6:25pm

BroadwayConcierge said: "I am not purchasing a ticket to this because the fanbase has already displayedstrong parallels to thoseofHeathersandDear Evan Hansen, both of which I strongly loath. So I'm taking my cue and bowing out of this one. Hope everybody enjoys it!"

Thanks for the update. 

[thealtoslament]

Posted: 7/22/18 at 7:24pm

About the whole possibility of edits to the book/score: I would be surprised if they made any changes, considering it's already being licensed and produced at the regional, amateur, and school level. More than likely this is a short run to consolidate the fanbase/boost the profile of the show and give people who wish to produce it at their high school/community theater group a frame of reference on how to do so. 

[BroadwayRox3588]

Posted: 7/22/18 at 8:18pm

My college is doing Be More Chill this fall. I just hope people behave professionally at auditions. That shouldn't be too much to ask.

[whatdoesntkillme]

Posted: 7/22/18 at 9:09pm

thealtoslament said: "About the whole possibility of edits to the book/score: I would be surprised if they made any changes, considering it's already being licensed and produced at the regional, amateur, and school level. More than likely this is a short run to consolidate the fanbase/boost the profile of the show and give people who wish to produce it at their high school/community theater group a frame of reference on how to do so."

If you read/watch pretty much any interview with the cast/creators, you'll learn that they're definitely making changes and improvements to the book/score. Nothing major, though I've heard rumblings of a new song. And Joe Iconis has explicitly stated that he would love for the show to go to Broadway. It's a commercial run--they want to make money off of it, not just advertise it for licensing. 

They could keep the licensed script/score as is, or they could update it. There's precedent for both.