{"id":71744,"date":"2018-08-09T22:25:29","date_gmt":"2018-08-10T02:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/new-musical-be-more-chill-is-like-an-incels-answer-to-mean-girls-review\/"},"modified":"2018-08-09T22:25:29","modified_gmt":"2018-08-10T02:25:29","slug":"new-musical-be-more-chill-is-like-an-incels-answer-to-mean-girls-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gayfriendschat.com\/socialblog\/new-musical-be-more-chill-is-like-an-incels-answer-to-mean-girls-review\/","title":{"rendered":"New Musical \u2018Be More Chill\u2019 Is Like an Incel\u2019s Answer to \u2018Mean Girls\u2019: REVIEW"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Musical \u2018Be More Chill\u2019 Is Like an Incel\u2019s Answer to \u2018Mean Girls\u2019: REVIEW<\/b>
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If every high school dram-com is about fitting in, each one needs something to set it apart. <\/span>Mean Girls<\/span><\/i><\/a> has a riotous script full of sharply drawn characters; <\/span>Dear Evan Hansen<\/span><\/i><\/a> has an inspired score with a vivid emotional center. <\/span>Be More Chill<\/span><\/i>, a frenetic and unnerving new musical that opened off-Broadway tonight, has none of these things. <\/span><\/p>\n

What it does have is an already-fervent fan base (the limited commercial run sold out prior to opening) and a supercomputer chill pill that promises to make kids cool. It\u2019s easy to see why the story struck a chord with young audiences online following its 2015 premiere at New Jersey\u2019s Two River Theatre \u2014 an every-spaz trying to survive high school hell is standard YA fare (the musical is based on such a novel by Ned Vizzini). Just add propulsive pop-rock, and stir. <\/span><\/p>\n

But <\/span>Be More Chill <\/span><\/i>is as confused and un-self-aware as a hormonal teenage<\/a> boy<\/a> \u2014 and nearly as reckless.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Fitting then, that it begins with one grousing in song that his porn won\u2019t load so he can beat off before school. It\u2019s funny, sure, and perfectly natural (no shame!). It\u2019s also our first sign that the musical, with score by Joe Iconis and book by Joe Tracz, considers frustrated male<\/a> desire its primary problem in need of solving. Not by teaching its protagonist that he\u2019s not entitled to the woman<\/a> he wants, or that he should simply be himself and love will find a way, but by tempting him with a pill that helps him say all the rights things to score. <\/span><\/p>\n

Jeremy (<\/span>Evan Hansen<\/span><\/i> alum Will Roland) doesn\u2019t want to be a hero, he tells us, he just wants to survive \u2014 and nab a date with Christine (Stephanie Hsu), an equally spastic drama nerd. \u201cAccept that you\u2019re one of those guys<\/a> who\u2019ll be a virgin \u2018till he dies,\u201d he laments after botching their first encounter. It seems the only thing standing between Jeremy and life as an incel is that magic little pill.<\/span><\/p>\n

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The first coeds he tries out his new tricks on are the most popular girls<\/a> in school (played by Lauren Marcus and Katlyn Carlson), who wind up competing for him by the second act. A requisite Halloween party scene finds one of them dressed as a slutty baby, enticing Jeremy into bed and singing, \u201cDo you wanna get inside my diaper, boy<\/a>?\u201d The next day at school, the other tells him, \u201cI\u2019m not just a sexy dog you can kick, Jeremy. I\u2019m a person.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

But of course, she isn\u2019t. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Psychoanalysis might reveal that Jeremy\u2019s absent mother and mopey father, who refuses to put pants on, are the source of their son\u2019s issues with women<\/a>. For now we\u2019ll have to lay them at the feet of <\/span>Be More Chill<\/span><\/i>\u2019s creators (including director Stephen Brackett), whose retrograde lens goes beyond the production\u2019s Atari-inspired aesthetics and harebrained gender politics.<\/span><\/p>\n

As the pill\u2019s effects turn less-than-innocent, the ensuring dread recalls the sort of bygone orientalist panic distilled in 1980\u2019s \u201cTurning Japanese\u201d (the pill hails from Japan). Undecipherable characters rain down ominously in projection (what they say doesn\u2019t matter, only that they cannot be understood) as Jason Tam, playing an avatar for the pill embedded in Jeremy\u2019s subconscious, dons increasingly nefarious-looking wigs. <\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s an unfortunate blindspot in a show already careless of the underlying message it\u2019s delivering to young fans. Of course, the pill doesn\u2019t exist, but the advice it serves Jeremy \u2014 stand up straight, play it cool, \u201cyou want someone to like you, hate who they hate\u201d \u2014 doesn\u2019t sound so absurd. \u201cEverything about you is so terrible,\u201d Tam\u2019s character sings to Jeremy. We\u2019re meant to laugh, but he\u2019s hardly joking. <\/span><\/p>\n

In the end, voices continue to echo in Jeremy\u2019s head, the loudest of which he says is his own. The problem is, he still hasn\u2019t learned that the only thing he needs to be is more\u2026himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recent theatre features\u2026
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New Rock Opera from \u2018Hedwig\u2019 Creator, \u2018This Ain\u2019t No Disco\u2019 Is Right About That: REVIEW<\/a>
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Idina Menzel Opens In Off-Broadway\u2019s \u2018Skintight,\u2019 a Daddy-Twink Romance Where \u2018Hot Is Everything\u2019: REVIEW<\/a>
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Get in, Losers: The \u2018Mean Girls\u2019 Musical Is Fun as Hell: REVIEW<\/a><\/strong><\/em>
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Follow Naveen Kumar on Twitter: @Mr_NaveenKumar
<\/a><\/em>(photos: maria baranova)<\/p>\n

The post New Musical \u2018Be More Chill\u2019 Is Like an Incel\u2019s Answer to \u2018Mean Girls\u2019: REVIEW<\/a> appeared first on Towleroad Gay News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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New Musical \u2018Be More Chill\u2019 Is Like an Incel\u2019s Answer to \u2018Mean Girls\u2019: REVIEW<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n