Trivia / Be More Chill

• Acting for Two:
  • Mr. Heere, Mr. Reyes, and the SQUIP-selling stockboy are all played by the same actor.
  • The show has no ensemble, so every cast member except Jeremy and the Squip also doubles as an ensemble member. This is taken to extremes in “The Smartphone Hour”, when everyone, including the men, plays a stereotypical teenage girl.
• Approval of God:
  • Multiple cast members, most notably Gerard Canonico (Rich in the original cast), are aware of the show's fans and approve of their art.
  • Joe Tracz has said he approves of all gender/sexuality headcanons for the characters.
• Ascended Fanon:
  • In the initial Two River production in 2015, Michael's sexuality is left ambiguous. Because of that as well as the lack of a Two River bootleg allowing for more room for interpretation, many fans at the time headcanoned Michael as being gay, and often portrayed him as wearing an LGBT flag patch on his jacket. The LGBT flag patch was made official in the 2018 Off-Broadway run and the story hints more at him being gay now. Official productions from here on keep this, making it canonical.
  • In an unusual case, Rich in the book has a red streak in his hair, but Rich in the original production of the musical does not. After musical fans learned about the streak it became a very popular headcanon, and in response to this the 2018 production gave him one. So, the trait went from canon to fanon and back again.
  • The off-Broadway version of the show adds a line about Michael having two moms, a headcanon that became popular in response to the high number of fan works that portrayed Michael’s never-mentioned family as distant, homophobic, or abusive.
  • Fans came to the consensus that Rich used to have a lisp before his Squip made him work past it. This never received any nod in the Off-Broadway run, but it became canonical once it moved to Broadway - at the end of the show, once the Squip is gone forever, he has a lisp again.
• Milestone Celebration: The 100th Broadway performance invited 100 fans to take a group photo with the cast and crew.
• Role Reprise: Of the original 10 primary cast members of the Two Rivers production premiere, half of the castmates reprised their roles for the off-Broadway production [George Salazar (Michael), Stephanie Hsu (Christine), Gerald Canonico (Rich), Katlyn Carlson (Chloe), Lauren Marcus (Brooke)]. The entire cast of the off-Broadway made the jump to the Broadway venue.
• Throw It In!: According to an interview on Seth Rudetsky's "Stars in the House," Brooke constantly drinking coffee or La Croix on stage was added because Lauren Marcus was always drinking something during rehearsals.
• Word of Gay: Joe Tracz, in response to a fan question, confirmed that the removal of Michael’s girlfriend, Nicole, and other references to him liking girls in the musical was intentional.