Be More Chill Off-Broadway Official Thread- Page 5

[Alex M]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 12:40am

Elegance101 said: "So sorry to hear about those stage door reports! I really hope you're doing all right, as I understand why that could be really overwhelming.

In regards to MITBR, I always feel like George really overacts that song. I, too, have struggled with my own mental health demons, but I much preferred Ben Platt's performance of those issues, as it was a less-is-more approach. When you start screaming and pounding the floor, it loses all emotional resonance for me. The simple way Platt kind of squeaked out those words in "Words Fail" gutted me, whereas Salazar screaming about feeling like a "loser" feels very disingenuous, or like he's trying to give a great performance, not live in the truth of the character."

I’m glad I’m not the only one who thought this!

[VintageSnarker]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 12:43am

Can someone clarify if the "stage door" is inside the building or out on the sidewalk? I likely won't be in the area anytime soon but you never know... I might see Smokey Joe's Cafe or something and I'd prefer to avoid any craziness.

Also, maybe it was the anticipation of utter insanity but aside from the stage door these reports of behavior during the show sound rather tame.

[dearalanaaaa]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 12:45am

Alex M said: " I realized mid way through the show that I’m not the prime audience for this show as it’s clearly based for the teen “Stan” craze but still enjoyed myself. It was like a mix of little shop and dear evan hansen which I thought was pretty interesting. Whole cast was amazing but Jason who played the squip was a big stand out for me! Will was also fantastic! My biggest problems were the pants song (which needs to go), . The fan base for this really makes me cringe aswell. There was like a party during intermission. I was there alone and had no one to talk to about how much I was cringing about the fans but the person next to me (who seemed to be a big fan of the show) did laugh when I audibly moaned when the fans started dancing around which was fun. I don’t see this transferring "

The party wouldn't been fun if everybody had been less hyper. Pants song was messed up due to Georges fall, but it's supposed to be a funny song in serious times. Half the pages on tickets are sold out so it has potential to transfer. Jenna was definitely a standout along with them two! Otherwise, total agree. 

[Synecdoche2]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 12:49am

have not seen the musical, but the book this is based on is one of the most sexist piles of garbage I've ever had the misfortune of reading.

[dearalanaaaa]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 12:53am

VintageSnarker said: "Can someone clarify if the "stage door" is inside the building or out on the sidewalk? I likely won't be in the area anytime soon but you never know...

Also, maybe it was the anticipation of utter insanity but aside from the stage door these reports of behavior during the show sound rather tame. "

The stage door is an indoor, confined, echoing chamber of hell. The audience had multiple people dancing with the choreo in their seats, clapping at random and singing along. Not tame.

[EllieRose2]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 1:44am

It was insane the whole time.  I don't know what you consider "tame" but....this was not tame by any means. 

[Bwayfan292]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 1:58am

Theres some videos up on youtube right now of the stage door. When I get home I will link them. Its insane. So many fans are just screaming and shoving, Brendon Urie’s stage door looked calm compared to this when he was in kinky boots, and we all know how crazy that was

[haterobics]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 2:04am

dearalanaaaa said: "-None of the gay ships are Canon, but only in one side."

Say what now?

[dearalanaaaa]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 2:43am

haterobics said: "dearalanaaaa said: "-None of the gay ships are Canon, but only in one side."

Say what now?"

I'm so tired everything is a bit trippy. Each ship the fandom wanted ended up being one-sided (besides all involving Jake or the girls.)

And Tumblr is already hard on their bootleg game. This person either has a strong memory or a boot of some kind. 

LOSER/GEEK/WHATEVER LYRICS

Updated On: 7/27/18 at 02:43 AM

[MrsSallyAdams]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 8:21am

Re Syndecohe2:
As I recall the 2004 book took the computers' "how to be a player" tips seriously whereas the 2015 musical treats it as gross from the start. Jeremy has to learn to embrace his true self rather than act like a bro jerk.

The biggest complaints I've heard about the musicals gender politics come from the way bro-Jeremy treats the supporting women and the fact that the leading lady is vastly underwritten. One of the reasons fans shipped Jeremy and Micheal is that their relationship is more fleshed out and high stakes than Jeremy's infatuation with Christine.

[thealtoslament]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 8:42am

MrsSallyAdams:

Your recollection is absolutely correct. Reading the book is an interesting experiment because the musical keeps the characters and the basic premise but is a functionally different work. It improves on the novel in pretty much every way but there are places, like developing Christine and having a compelling reason for why Jeremy would want to go out with her, where it doesn't do enough. 

[haterobics]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 10:21am

dearalanaaaa said: "I'm so tired everything is a bit trippy. Each ship the fandom wanted ended up being one-sided (besides all involving Jake or the girls.)"

Not sure that helped. Doesn't a show... exist, and you go see it and that's what happens? The fandom has to rally around the actual show and what actually happens in it, no?

Not too concerned, as I have a friend in the show, so I was going either way. Now I just hope there is a backstage area where they can greet guests and not tell us to wait in the lobby.

I don't know much beyond the basic premise of the show, so I'm just waiting until I see it Labor Day weekend? 

[S394206H]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 10:35am

I took a horrifying dive into the Be More Chill tumblr tag last night, and it seems like the vast majority of the fans have fixated on “how gay it is now!!” and seem to be disregarding the whole point of the show. I personally have nothing against fan service, but only if the changes you make service both the overall story and the fans. I have a very basic grasp of the show and it’s plot, and don’t particularly consider myself a fan, but I talked to a friend who was there last night who said that most of the more “fan-servicey” changes felt shoehorned in for audience approval rather than actual plot or character development. I am particularly put off by the fact the Rich kind of now just says, “oh, by the way, I’m bi now!” and the whole thing is treated very flippantly, at least according to my friend. I feel like this show has potential to be even more successful than it already is if changes are made to flesh out the characters more, but instead it feels like they were only concerned with getting cheers from the audience. The whole fanbase is lauding this new production as having fantastic LGBT+ representation now, when really a few very minor changes were made just so that the writers could pat themselves on the back for being “inclusive” and the fans could go wild writing fanfiction now that their “ships are canon.” I wish these changes could have been made in a more tasteful way, since it’s obvious a lot of stuff was just thrown into the script to please the teenagers that would be watching.

[thealtoslament]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 10:50am

S394206H said: "I took a horrifying dive into the Be More Chill tumblr tag last night, and it seems like the vast majority of the fans have fixated on “how gay it is now!!” and seem to be disregarding the whole point of the show. I personally have nothing against fan service, but only if the changes you make service both the overall story and the fans. I have a very basic grasp of the show and it’s plot, and don’t particularly consider myself a fan, but I talked to a friend who was there last night who said that most of the more “fan-servicey” changes felt shoehorned in for audience approval rather than actual plot or character development. I am particularly put off by the fact the Rich kind of now just says, “oh, by the way, I’m bi now!” and the whole thing is treated very flippantly, at least according to my friend. I feel like this show has potential to be even more successful than it already is if changes are made to flesh out the characters more, but instead it feels like they were only concerned with getting cheers from the audience. The whole fanbase is lauding this new production as having fantastic LGBT+ representation now, when really a few very minor changes were made just so that the writers could pat themselves on the back for being “inclusive” and the fans could go wild writing fanfiction now that their “ships are canon.” I wish these changes could have been made in a more tasteful way, since it’s obvious a lot of stuff was just thrown into the script to please the teenagers that would be watching."

iirc, Rich being bisexual is in the show as originally written (the Two River premiere version) and there, that scene in the hospital carries the implication that his SQUIP made him repress his bisexuality in favor of gaining popularity, much in the same way Jeremy's SQUIP pushes Michael away in favor of him gaining popularity, which is a pretty basic but nonetheless interesting parallel between them.

The more I think about it, the bigger and bigger a problem I have with Michael being explicitly gay and pining after Jeremy. I don't care about the fact that Michael is gay in the revised book, just like I wouldn't have cared if the writers went back to Ned Vizzini's novel and added Nicole to the musical (in the novel, Michael's definitely straight, or at the very least attracted to women, and his girlfriend Nicole is a minor character.) In the original musical version, his sexuality was never revealed, and now it is. That's not the problem. I hate-hate-hate the "gay-character-pining-after-their-straight-best-friend" trope and personally, from my position as a probably-straight-and-maybe-slightly-asexual person think it's terrible LGBTQ+ representation and it does a disservice to Michael and Jeremy's platonic relationship in the original musical.

Sorry for the novel, y'all. I know that some of you here probably think the show doesn't deserve that much thought, but I do legitimately enjoy this show and I feel things very passionately.

On a very different note, I think some of you may be interested in this old video (from 2014, before the show even premiered!) of Will Roland singing Michael in the Bathroom. Especially if you think George Salazar over-acts his performance of it. Roland's version is much more... resigned to his fate, I guess? It's interesting comparing the two, since they're now both in the show.

[Elegance101]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 12:30pm

thealtoslament said: "The more I think about it, the bigger and bigger a problem I have with Michael being explicitly gay and pining after Jeremy. I don't care about the fact that Michael is gay in the revised book, just like I wouldn't have cared if the writers went back to Ned Vizzini's novel and added Nicole to the musical (in the novel, Michael's definitely straight, or at the very least attracted to women, and his girlfriend Nicole is a minor character.) In the original musical version, his sexuality was never revealed, and now it is. That's not the problem. I hate-hate-hatethe"gay-character-pining-after-their-straight-best-friend" trope and personally, from my position as a probably-straight-and-maybe-slightly-asexual personthink it's terrible LGBTQ+ representation and it does a disservice to Michael and Jeremy's platonic relationship in the original musical.

Sorry for the novel, y'all. I know that some of you here probably think the show doesn't deserve that much thought, but I do legitimately enjoy this show and I feel things very passionately."

I think the show can be talked about like this, especially if it's being seen and discussed by young people. I think it's good to consider how it might affect these young people and how their views on the world could be swayed by something like this.

Also, I completely agree with you. The trope is actually quite harmful in a lot of ways and I think it's a little irresponsible of them to include it in the show. I also think, on a lesser note, Michael's sexuality being explicitly included seems very pandering of them. Does it add something more, or is it because the fans just wanted him to be gay? If it's never mentioned, it makes it so it's just not at the forefront of his character. Now, with him being explicitly a gay man, that's all anyone will talk about, making his sexuality a defining factor in his character for absolutely no reason. But overall, that bothers me less than his crush on Jeremy, which is a harmful trope that perpetuates homophobic ideas (I've been around many straight boys who don't want to be friends with gay guys or be in the same locker room as them because they think they have a crush on them) and I sincerely hope they remove it.

thealtoslament, don't apologize for discussing what you're passionate about. That's what BroadwayWorld is for! :)

[dearalanaaaa]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 1:20pm

haterobics said: "

Not sure that helped. Doesn't a show... exist, and you go see it and that's what happens? The fandom has to rally around the actual show and what actually happens in it, no?

Not too concerned, as I have a friend in the show, so I was going either way. Now I just hope there is a backstage area where they can greet guests and not tell us to wait in the lobby.

I don't know much beyond the basic premise of the show, so I'm just waiting until I see it Labor Day weekend?"

Basically fandoms ship (have a pair they want in the show, so instead of Jeremy and Christine they want Michael and Jeremy or Rich) and each of these ships are implied on one side. Discord Be More Chill is spreading that both ships happen when that's false.

Also, I think security will stop stage door soon, it got way too bad out there for no reason. You're in good hands.

[haterobics]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 1:36pm

dearalanaaaa said: "Basically fandoms ship (have a pair they want in the show, so instead of Jeremy and Christine they want Michael and Jeremy or Rich) and each of these ships are implied on one side. Discord Be More Chill is spreading that both ships happen when that's false."

Oh, so this is just more Tumblr leaking onto BWW...

[dearalanaaaa]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 1:53pm

haterobics said: "dearalanaaaa said: "Basically fandoms ship (have a pair they want in the show, so instead of Jeremy and Christine they want Michael and Jeremy or Rich) and each of these ships are implied on one side. Discord Be More Chill is spreading that both ships happen when that's false."

Oh, so this is just more Tumblr leaking onto BWW..."

If I'm being honest, yes, but this show is basically a human form of Tumblr being acted out on stage. I took time out to learn the Tumblr slangs because it's a lot easier than just saying everything in long form.

"Elegance101 said: "it's a little irresponsible of them to include it in the show. I also think, on a lesser note, Michael's sexuality being explicitly included seems very pandering of them. Does it add something more, or is it because the fans just wanted him to be gay?  His crush on Jeremy, which is a harmful trope that perpetuates homophobic ideas ."

The whole show is a small scale fan service now. It almost felt out of character for Michael to do that in retrospect, considering he seems to also have an anxiety disorder. No shade towards Salazar, but he really panders for fans on his story. Last year, it was "Fanart Friday" Where he would repost ship art, but now he straight up put on his story "Ask Gerard and George (we're now dating)!" On his story when they aren't even close to dating and Gerard is straight. In one of the videos, you can hear his call a fan "The best fan," which isn't really cool to say even if you think it. Not to say I'm placing a good chunk of blame on George/Iconis, but I'll place quite a bit on them both.

[thealtoslament]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 2:30pm

dearalanaaaa said: "Not to say I'm placing a good chunk of blame on George/Iconis, but I'll place quite a bit on them both."

I think you (global you, not you specifically) also have to put some blame on the bookwriter Joe Tracz, who's gone from "any headcanons you have about characters' sexualities, whether they're gay or straight or bi or pan or whatever, are great!" to "we purposely took out anything that can be construed as Michael showing interest in girls." 

[haterobics]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 2:33pm

thealtoslament said: "I think you (global you, not you specifically) also have to put some blame on the bookwriter Joe Tracz"

Isn't the show his to play with until he's done with it?

[thealtoslament]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 2:40pm

It is, absolutely. My point was more that it was left ambiguous in the original book of the show, and I get the vibe that now that the creative team has realized the power of the fandom they created, the ambiguity has made it very easy to pander. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth, especially because Michael is a fan favorite character and I hate to see him used as cheap half-baked representation. Apologies that my original wording was unclear.

[Robbie2]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 3:02pm

dearalanaaaa said: "haterobics said: "dearalanaaaa said: "Basically fandoms ship (have a pair they want in the show, so instead of Jeremy and Christine they want Michael and Jeremy or Rich) and each of these ships are implied on one side. Discord Be More Chill is spreading that both ships happen when that's false."

Oh, so this is just more Tumblr leaking onto BWW..."

If I'm being honest, yes, but this show is basically a human form of Tumblrbeing acted out on stage. I took time out to learn the Tumblr slangs because it's a loteasier than just saying everything in long form.

"Elegance101 said: "it's a little irresponsible of them to include it in the show. I also think, on a lesser note, Michael's sexuality being explicitly included seems very pandering of them. Does it add something more, or is it because the fans just wanted him to be gay? His crush on Jeremy, which is a harmful trope that perpetuates homophobic ideas ."

The whole show is a small scale fan service now. It almost felt out of character for Michael to do that in retrospect, considering he seems to also have an anxiety disorder. No shade towards Salazar, but he really panders for fans on his story. Last year, it was "Fanart Friday" Where he would repost ship art, but now he straightup put on his story "Ask Gerard and George (we're now dating)!" On his story when they aren't even close to dating and Gerardis straight. In one of the videos, you can hear his call a fan "The best fan," which isn't really cool to say even if you think it. Not to say I'm placing a good chunk of blame on George/Iconis, but I'll place quite a bit on them both."

 

 

Dude, what language are you speaking? None of your posts seem to make any sense to me...is this teen gibberish?

[dearalanaaaa]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 3:21pm

Robbie2 said: "Not to say I'm placing a good chunk of blame on George/Iconis, but I'll place quite a bit on them both."


Dude, what language are you speaking? None of your posts seem to make any sense to me...is thisteen gibberish?"

I'm trying not to make it be. I apologise to everybody that can't understand my posts. My main point was: the fandom had influenced the book by forcing their pairing of couples they wanted to see into it. And this is not okay, as somebody said about the whole "gay boy falls for straight guy he cannot get" trope. The most vocal part of the fans are the ones who are destroying the book. 

[quietguy2]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 3:38pm

Been on BWW for a while but new to responding!

I saw the first preview last night and I loved it. I was honestly a bit surprised because I am a quite older than the stans. I also read other people's reports of the fans last night and I would have to say I disagree. I don't like the energy of big crowds or fans and was uncomfortable leaving dear evan hansen and going by stage door and I thought this was way calmer. Likely because the amount of seats is so much less. While the crowd at stagedoor was big, it was a much smaller group. If it transfer sto a bigger theater, it could be a problem though. I was sort of nervous after reading this thread about the fans. But I talked to so many teens and adults who very calmly told me what this show meant to them and my heart was warmed. 

As for the show itself, I had only heard the soundtrack a little before, but I enjoy it. The actors were wonderful. The person playing Rich has quite a range. Oh and the new song is VERY good! I think they need more runs to tighten up the show a bit, but it was super strong for a first preview. From the quality of the design, I think they are attempting to go to broadway. I just bought a ticket to go again after opening to see how it smooths out and because I was worried it would sell out. Highlight for me was the smartphone hour - funny and fun choreography.

[Sarah329]

Posted: 7/27/18 at 9:36pm

Can people who didn’t see the show get to stagedoor? Someone informed me that the stagedoor was in the lobby so you could only access it if you saw the show and were in the theatre. I personally dislike when the people who take up the whole front barricade are the ones who didn’t see the show. (unless it’s that empty that everyone manages to get a spot)
Regarding a transfer to broadway, I do think it could transfer, as long as it’s a decent show and sells out its run. Personally I wouldn’t go if it transfered but the stans would go C R A Z Y.
(Also, I’ve barely listened to the musical and I already like the novel better. Oops.)