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Did Roland, Salazar & Hsu Find Their Chill? Go Inside Opening Night of BE MORE CHILL!
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Oct 31, 2022
Michael did not spend this party in the bathroom. Just last night the company of the cult hit Be More Chill, featuring music and lyrics by Joe Iconis, a book byJoe Tracz , direction by Stephen Brackett and choreography by Chase Brock, celebrated opening night on Broadway. We're taking you inside the festivities with Iconis, Will Roland, George Salazar, Stephanie Hsu, Jason Tam and more below!
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway
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following a critically acclaimed sold-out run off-Broadway. The new Joe Iconist and Joe Trace musical
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Be More Chill, has come to Broadway's Lyceum Theater, and we're here on opening night to celebrate with the company
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The thing about you is going to be wonderful. We love everything about you
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Everything about you is going to be so alive. You will. It's the greatest thing that's ever happened to me
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I have known so many of these people for so long, and I am so thrilled to stand shoulder to shoulder with them
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and do this musical on Broadway every night. I really, really mean it. I am thrilled with what I get to do
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I'm thrilled with the opportunities that I'm seeing for my friends, and I've just never felt better about any work that I've ever done
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I love this role because Michael Mel, is the ideal best friend
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And I feel like I get a second chance at high school in a way. I cared so much about what I looked like and sounded like
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and what other people thought about me. And it feels really liberating to get to step into the shoes of a high schooler
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who has his act together more than I do as an adult
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And to get to sing Michael in the bathroom every night, which is this song that has become so loved is like it like truly I feel like I like I feel like I getting a lifetime achievement award every night
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Truly, truly. It's such a, it's such an honor to get to sing that song every night
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Joe Iconis has such this new voice in the theater. What do you love the most about his song
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I love how like matter of fact his lyrics are. I think that is something so beautiful that I've always
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really been drawn to Joe's music is his ability to just really transfer thought into melody
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Yeah. I was seated really close tonight and in act two, once we hit the Halloween sequence and Michael
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in the bathroom, I was so transported back to our first performances at Two River
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And the thing that really moved me was that it's kind of the same in the best way
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It feels like what I initially felt a spark about in Red Bank, New Jersey
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It's on stage of the Lyceum, and I'm so proud that we were able to maintain that
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and play on a Broadway stage. And I think that a lot of people like it
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You know, I heard a Limanwell laugh a bunch of times, and that's like, that's a good pat on the back
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I'm loving working with all of my friends. These are people that I've worked with for over 12 years now
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and people that have been, like, hoping it in the business and trying to make it work
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And now here we all are going from the basement of the Lori Beechman Theater, you know
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and Ars Nova, before Ars Nova, was Ars Nova, and now opening a show on Broadway
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It feels so cool. I mean today is like the realization of you know my entire life It actually been a really really really lovely day full of laughing and smiles and tears
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And I mean, I've been overwhelmed at so many points throughout the day for myself, for everybody else, for my husband
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Like, it's been amazing. Absolutely incredible. What was tonight like for you
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Tonight was literally just a buzz, a hum of beautifully, wonderfully good vibrations
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When you took your bow tonight on Broadway at the Lyceum Theater, do you remember what you were thinking
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I remember thinking, ooh, of my 14-year-old self and how this was unfathomable to her
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and the dreams, big, crazy, wacky dreams can come true. Oh, it feels incredible
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It feels unlike any other opening night I've been a part of, truly. It feels like when you build something from the ground up and you truly see it come to fruition like this in the best possible way
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It feels like a dream truly coming true. What was today like for you leading up to the opening night
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It felt pretty restful, actually. I had a nice restful afternoon, and then I got to the theater and was showered with gifts and love
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and support from everyone I worked with. And then it became very real during the show
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when we started hearing the reactions and seeing the faces. Yeah, it's literally like I'm floating on a cloud right now
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There's so many steps that we've gone through that have been like, and now you're going to see this for the first time
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now you're going to experience this for the first time. They've all been, it just seems like it couldn't get any better
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and then it does We saw that marquee and I and we all were just like this is it This is where we going to be living hopefully for a while And then to stand on the stage for the first time and to hear the band for the first time all these little increments that now have added up to this incredible experience
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I can't even describe it except to say that I've spent much of today with a lump in my throat
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and then a good chunk of that time crying and then a good chunk of that time just in bliss
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just I'm having time of my life. There's always been a beautiful dynamic between the audience and be more chill
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and the fans who are so generous of their spirit and ideas that they have of these characters
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some of which have found their way into the show in little ways
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which I think is just a beautiful symbiosis between audience and show
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We love them, they love us, it's beautiful. So when you took your bow tonight on Broadway at the Lyceum
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do you remember what you were thinking? I was thinking that there are a lot of people
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who look like me in my past and my ancestry who would never have this opportunity to shine in their truth
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And it's a beautiful season to be me. And I want to affirm the goodness in everybody
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But I really felt like ancestrally I was very proud. Be marching
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