History Theatre / BeMoreChill

** Jeremy is confused when [[spoiler:Jenna remembers her lines perfectly. Because she never does... cue OhCrap as Jeremy realizes that she was given a SQUIP]].

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: At Jake's Halloween party, Christine thought they'd be going as a prince and princess. He dresses up as Music/Prince instead, which Christine finds ActuallyPrettyFunny.

* ComicallyMissingThePoint: At Jake's Halloween party, Christine thought they'd be going as a prince and princess. He dresses up as Prince instead, which Christine finds ActuallyPrettyFunny.

* AmbiguousDisorder: About half the cast.
** Jeremy is extremely heavily implied to suffer from some kind of anxiety disorder, and displays many characteristics of depression, most notably his severe self-hatred, which the SQUIP [[KickTheDog exploits]] to gain control over him by encouraging his existing suicidal ideation.
*** In general, Jeremy's arc revolves around his mental health, and much of the final song of the show - "Voices In My Head" - is based off of a quote from Ned Vizzini, the author of the original book, about his own experiences with depression. Will Roland has also [[https://gothammag.com/dear-evan-hansen-will-roland-broadway cited]] his experience working with children with social disorders like Asperger's autism as inspiration for how he portrays Jeremy.
** In addition to his geeky interests and obsession with vintage products such as soda (highly specific interests being a hallmark trait of autism), Michael also shows signs of anxiety--he has a full-blown panic attack at the Halloween party, in the process also showing symptoms of serious social anxiety and suicidal ideation. It's ambiguous how much of this is a new thing due to losing his only friend, and how much of it was there before but just well-hidden.
** While some of Rich's shaky sanity is the result of abuse by his SQUIP rather than a disorder, he does briefly mention that he first ''got'' his SQUIP partially because he was "stagnant" and "suicidal" - which his SQUIP clearly exploits. On Halloween, when he struggles to find a way to get rid of the SQUIP, he [[spoiler: attempts suicide]].
** Christine feels unable to relate to anyone her age outside of theatre, mirroring how some autistic people or people with ADHD can feel about people who do not share their interests. She also mentions frequently feeling depressed and immediately follows it up with a [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial suspiciously flustered]] insistence that she doesn't self-harm, she seems to lack a filter when she speaks, and she has an odd VerbalTic of being the only character in the musical whose songs [[SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion don't always rhyme]], which is probably a metaphor for ''something''. The "ambiguous" part of the trope is downplayed with her, though, since she directly describes herself as having ADD.
** Since his divorce, Jeremy's dad never leaves the house or even bothers to get dressed until his concern for Jeremy forced him to. He seems to be suffering from pretty serious depression, but the show doesn't really go into it much.

* SexyWhateverOutfit: It ain't a teen Halloween party without 'em. Brooke goes as a sexy dog, because "you always see sexy cats, but no one ever goes as a sexy dog." Chloe goes dressed as a sexy baby (big hint: that's not milk in her bottle).
** For Broadway, Christine describes her costume as a "sexy princess". She feels uncomfortable with it and only wore it to impress her popular date, Jake, but makes a point that as a feminist, she's not shaming anyone who wants to dress as such.

* CostumeEvolution: In the 2018 production, the Squip has three costumes in total: a stylish hoodie with sunglasses for his first form, a BadassLongcoat with white hair for his second form, and finally, an evil-looking robe with DevilishHairHorns for his third, most sinister form (which the Broadway version updated to a slick black PeekABangs hairdo and a [[EvilWearsBlack long black gown]] with a pixel display on the chest).

Despite running for only a month in a small regional theater, it blew up in popularity on Tumblr in summer 2017 and has the makings of a modern CultClassic. The fanbase is vocal enough to have secured it an Off-Broadway run starting in July 2018, and then a Broadway run from February to August of 2019. Its 2020 off-West End production was disrupted by COVID, but managed to move to the West End for a few showings in 2021. If you're a theater fan between the ages of 14-25, you probably know this show, or at least the SignatureSong [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj1P-5Ey4dU "Michael in the Bathroom".]]

Despite running for only a month in a small regional theater, it blew up in popularity on Tumblr in summer 2017 and has the makings of a modern CultClassic. The fanbase is vocal enough to have secured it an Off-Broadway run starting in July 2018, and then a Broadway run from February to August of 2019. Its 2020 off-West End production was disrupted by COVID, but managed to move to the West End for a few showings in 2021. If you're a theater kid between the ages of 14-25, you know this show, or at least the SignatureSong [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj1P-5Ey4dU "Michael in the Bathroom".]]

* AdultsAreUseless: There are only three human adult characters in the whole show: The Stockboy (drug dealer), Mr. Reyes (drama teacher who doesn't care about his job at all and mocks his own students), and Jeremy's dad (depressed man who is too consumed by his divorce to take care of Jeremy. He gets better by the end, though). Even the unseen parent characters are more often than not implied to be abusive or at least unhelpful, with the exception of Michael's [[HasTwoMommies loving moms]].

* HasTwoMommies: Michael mentions his two moms in the revised 2018-2019 scripts.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: A running gag with Jeremy. Literally the first thing of him that the audience sees is him trying (and failing) to download porn for this purpose, dumping an inordinate amount of lotion on his hand, and then complaining that he's now going to be [[RagingStiffie uncomfortable]] all day without it. The SQUIP calls him a "masturbator" as an insult when it first starts criticizing how he walks, and when Jeremy objects that he ''[[IResembleThatRemark is]]'' [[IResembleThatRemark a masturbator]] the SQUIP offhandedly promises that they'll [[SelfAbuse work on that]]. Sure enough, the SQUIP is later seen interrupting Jeremy's next attempt to download porn by giving him an electric shock.

-->'''Jeremy:''' How could ''all'' this happen? I didn’t mean to hurt Brooke, I didn’t mean to hurt anyone! Now Rich is in the hospital, my best friend thinks I’m a jerk! And Christine – you were supposed to make her like me! You were supposed to ''fix'' me, and I’ve done everything you said, and all ''it's'' done is make things worse. For everyone!

'''Michael:''' He’s in a ''mental hospital''.\\

'''Jeremy:''' If you’re telling me that his SQUIP made him crazy…\\
'''Michael:''' His SQUIP didn’t make him crazy!\\

* BareYourMidriff: In the Broadway performance, all of Chloe's costumes expose her belly.

* GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul: Part of the SQUIP's vision for world domination includes removing negative feelings and creating an army of "shiny, happy faces." Surely, during the play, [[spoiler:the characters smile and hug despite being angry with one another mere hours before, and it's implied this (mostly) artificial feeling of being "connected" to one another remains even after the deactviation.]]

* HeadphonesEqualIsolation: Michael wears his headphones at school whenever he’s not with Jeremy, and is known to the other students as "antisocial headphones kid".

* ManipulativeBastard: The Squip, and how. Right from the start it begins chipping away at Jeremy's already bruised self-esteem with constant, often unnecessarily harsh critiques of his looks, personality, and mannerisms. Then it asserts that all these things can be fixed and Jeremy can become cool if he only listens to its advice. He reinforces all this by alternately offering and then withholding scraps of affection and support which Jeremy feels he's lacking, especially from adult role model figures, which the SQUIP explicitly resembles. When Jeremy starts to have doubts about ditching Michael for the popular kids, the Squip contends that he's a link to "Jeremy 1.0" and that if Jeremy ever wants to become popular he'll have to ditch losers like Michael. The manipulative part is somewhat expected since the Squip supposedly has a comprehensive, adaptable knowledge of human social conventions and the ability to predict the most likely outcome of anything that anyone could say or do, but it certainly plays up the bastard aspect of this throughout the musical. It also issues electric shocks whenever he disobeys it, and is capable of producing hallucinations that 'prove' its points (such as of a crowd at the mall that alternately berates and adores Jeremy). This reaches its head perhaps during "The Pitiful Children", when the SQUIP [[spoiler: shows a deeply empathetic Jeremy how Jenna Rolan and Christine suffer similarly to him, and contrasts this with how happy Jenna becomes when they give her a SQUIP of her own; by promising that they're helping others not suffer the way he did, the SQUIP gets Jeremy to agree to help TakeOverTheWorld by creating a SQUIP hivemind in which every person has no choice but to be happy]].

** Rich has a very rough home life with an alcoholic father and is mentioned to have been suicidal in freshman year, where he was such a loser even Jeremy and Michael didn't notice him. His Squip only made his life worse, likely treating him just as badly as Jeremy's Squip, hiding his lisp, true personality, and bisexuality, shocking him repeatedly and ultimately driving him to burn down his friend's house in an effort to stop it, leaving him hospitalized and severely burned. Brought UpToEleven in the 2018 production, where a new scene shows him being brutally tortured by his Squip, as he sobs in terror and struggles hard to rebel against its commands, leading him to set the fire in a quasi-suicidal attempt to stop it from taking over the school.

'''Jeremy:''' Oh, ''shit''.

** Brooke, who has mentioned previously being cheated on by ex-boyfriends, walks in on [[spoilers: Jeremy (her boyfriend) and Chloe (her best friend) making out during Jake's party]] with the assumption of cheating due to her not knowing the context of sexual assault and Jeremy being manipulated by the SQUIP. She spends the rest of the party crying.

** Brooke, who has mentioned previously being cheated on by ex-boyfriends, walks in on Jeremy (her boyfriend) and Chloe (her best friend) making out during Jake's party and spends the rest of it crying.
** Jake's parents abandoned him and don't seem to be coming back anytime soon, not to mention his house got set on fire and burned to the ground by Rich, who we can assume is at least a good friend of his. He breaks both his legs jumping out of a second-floor window trying to rescue Rich. And then [[spoiler:he gets Squipped during the play and is forced to walk, run, and dance on his broken legs without the help of his crutches, actions that some productions show to land him in a wheelchair by the end.]]

** "Voices in My Head" has a brief reprise of "A Guy That I'd Kinda Be Into" [[spoiler:except this time, Christine and Jeremy get together]], and finishes off with a celebratory, rather than longing, reprise of "More Than Survive" and the instrumental part of "The Squip Song", as Jeremy heals and comes to finally trust himself. The writer has pointed out that the tempo is slowed to more relaxed, less aggressive pace than in the opening number to show how far everyone's come from their adversarial positions to others and themselves at the beginning of the show.

* AdultFear: Mr. Heere freaks out when he learns that Jeremy "borrowed" his car to go to a Halloween party, where one of the guests set a fire. He confronts Jeremy about it, and realizes his son his NotHimself. In the end of the play, after Jeremy [[spoiler:ends up in the hospital, Mr. Heere expresses his relief by saying YouAreGrounded and he's going to be a better parent]].

* CostumeEvolution: In the 2018 production, the Squip has three costumes in total: a stylish hoodie with sunglasses for his first form, a BadassLongcoat with white hair for his second form, and finally, an evil-looking robe with a HornedHairdo for his third, most sinister form (which the Broadway version updated to a slick black PeekABangs hairdo and a [[EvilWearsBlack long black gown]] with a pixel display on the chest).

''Be More Chill'' is a musical theatre adaptation written by Joe Iconis and Joe Tracz of [[Literature/BeMoreChill the book with the same name]]. It premiered at the Two River Theatre in Red Bank, New Jersey in 2015. It follows the life of Jeremy Heere, an average high school dork whose life gets turned upside down after he gets a Squip - a quantum supercomputer in the form of a pill that enters one's brain and instructs them on how to become cool.

* YouHaveToHaveJews: After he first swallows the Squip and nothing immediate happens, Jeremy mourns to Michael that he "blew [his] bar mitzvah money on a Wintergreen Tic-tac."

* RealityEnsues:
** Jeremy tries to ask Christine out [[spoiler:after she breaks up with Jake. She turns him down because she just had a breakup]].
** Chloe is able to boss around Brooke because the latter is admittedly too nice to push back. That doesn't last when [[spoiler:she catches Chloe drunkenly propositioning her boyfriend. Brooke breaks up with Jeremy for ostensibly cheating on her, and refuses to speak to her best friend at all. Even when Chloe offers an apology, Brooke remains cold with her and reminds everyone that just because she's nice doesn't mean she's spineless. It takes the SQUIP brainwashing them for the two to make up]].

Despite running for only a month in a small regional theater, it blew up in popularity on Tumblr in summer 2017 and has the makings of a modern CultClassic. The fanbase is vocal enough to have secured it an Off-Broadway run starting in July 2018, and then a Broadway run from February to August of 2019. It is slated for both an off-West End run and a Chicago run starting in 2020. If you're a theater kid between the ages of 14-25, you know this show, or at least the SignatureSong [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dj1P-5Ey4dU "Michael in the Bathroom".]]

* ChangingChorus: "Michael in the Bathroom" changes its chorus three times, with the final chorus replacing the first few lines with a beat and also adding a few couplets at the end. The first chorus:
-->Michael in the bathroom
-->Michael in the bathroom at a party
-->Forget how long its been
-->I'm just Michael in the bathroom
-->Michael in the bathroom at a party
-->No, you can't come in
-->I'm waiting it out 'til it's time to leave
-->And picking at grout as I softly grieve
-->I'm just
-->Michael who you don't know
-->Michael flying solo
-->Michael in the bathroom by himself
** The second chorus:
--->Michael in the bathroom
--->Michael in the bathroom at a party
--->I half regret the beers
--->Michael in the bathroom
--->Michael in the bathroom at a party
--->As I choke back the tears
--->I'll wait as long as I need
--->'Til my face is dry
--->Or I'll just blame it on weed
--->Or something in my eye
--->I'm just Michael
--->Who you don't know
--->Michael flyin' solo
--->Michael in the bathroom by himself
** And the final chorus:
--->''[music plays over where the line would go]'' ...at a party
--->Is there a sadder sight
--->''[hums the tune of the "Michael in the bathroom" line]''
--->Michael in the bathroom at a party
--->This is a heinous night
--->I wish I stayed at home instead
--->Watching cable porn
--->Or wish I offed myself instead
--->Wish I was never born
--->I'm just Michael
--->Who's a loner
--->So he must be a stoner
--->Rides a PT Cruiser
--->God, he's such a loser
--->Michael flying solo
--->Who you think that you know
--->Michael in the bathroom by himself