This June, around our family dinner, my parents said something surprising.
"Tomorrow, we're going on vacation." My sister and I were thoroughly surprised when we heard this; our parents hadn't said a word about any sort of vacation this weekend.
"What? Where are we going?"
"You'll see." My dad sips his drink. "The only reason we told you today was so we could pack up easier."
My sister took this worse than I did; while she was practically in conniptions begging my dad to tell her what was happening, I mostly enjoyed the car ride up to Red Bank, New Jersey, wondering what we could possibly be doing. I had two main theories:
1. We were going to hop a train to New York and spend an afternoon/evening/day doing whatever(we had stopped at a hotel in Jersey, so I assumed we might be sleeping there).
2. There was something really cool in Red Bank that would be enjoyable.
Ultimately, the latter was correct.
Our parents had gotten us moderately dressed up as we pulled up to Two River Theater, my sister in mild protest the whole ride up. I noticed a sign up. While from a distance I thought it was "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" (to be fair the branding looked similar from afar), as we drew closer, I knew it was going to be awesome.
Okay, maybe they don't look that similar, but I was mildly confused by the whole situation.
It was two works on the poster of this "Be More Chill" show that indicated its general awesomeness: Joe Iconis. One of the most interesting and underground musical theatre songwriters currently in the business (his website here). Our family was well enough acquainted with his other works (some of the songs on season two of "Smash," "Blue Hair") to know this was going to be enjoyable. My sister is incredibly into Broadway/theatre business, so dad was surprised she hadn't heard of this show.
I am a fan of musical theatre and usually enjoy shows of any sort, I knew I was in love when I read the synopsis: the show is about a teenage boy named Jeremy Heere, who acquires a powerful supercomputer called a Squip to help him become cool and win the heart of Christine Canigula. I was eagerly anticipating this show until the moment it began.
This show is honestly one of the most unique musicals I have ever seen. The songs were rocking, the story was amazingly executed, and all the actors killed it out there. The staging and costuming complemented the show quite well. I even got one of the shirts Jeremy wore as a souvenir from Urban Outfitters (they didn't have any real merchandise besides the book it was based on).
After the show, my family and I went out to dinner, and then to an arcade, and the following morning out to breakfast and the town. However, of the entire surprise vacation, "Be More Chill" was the highlight. Even after we went home, I just wanted to listen to the entire show again and again.
The day before Halloween, the album came out. And my family, knowing how much I loved the show, sent me the album via Dropbox. The first thing I did that morning was download the album onto my phone and listen to the entire show again, remembering how good it was with a passion. The album itself is currently available online, and you can preorder hard copies at Shk-A-Boom Records. The music on the album tells most of the story, and is good enough to stand on its own, without seeing the show. Even though the show finished its run on June 28, I still feel the need to share this wonderful thing that I discovered, in the hope that others will find it wonderful as well.
