Joe Iconis Celebrates West End Debut with BE MORE CHILL

Hi, this is Joe Iconis and you're watching Broadway World UK

Greetings and salutations to all the losers, geeks and whatever's out there

Today I'm at the Shastbury Theatre for a special influencer night for the West End premiere of new musical Be More Chill

But I also had the opportunity to catch up with the show's Tony-nominated composer and lyricist

So without any further ado, here's Joe Iconis. Hi Joe! Hey, Tom

How are you doing? I'm doing well. I'm doing great. I'm very excited about the goings-on Be More Chill these days

Well, thank you so much for joining me today. Obviously, we're talking about the Western premiere of your musical Be More Chill

And, of course, the show had such a remarkable journey, you know, in the States

from starting off in New Jersey, then to off-Broadway, all the way to the bright lights of Broadway through massive fan support

But it's also had quite an interesting journey over here as well

It began its life at the Other Palace in February 2020. And then, like so many shows, it became a victim of the COVID-19 pandemic

but fast forward and here we are and the show has got its own upgrade a West End upgrade and

is now playing the Shaftesbury Theatre uh marking your West End debut so how does it feel having

your work now not not going back to to the off-West End stage but playing to a to a West End

audience at the Shaftesbury Theatre it I mean it's you know it's beyond thrilling for me I'm

someone who, you know, I was a theater kid. Like, I didn't come to musical theater, you know, from

another world. I wasn't someone who was, you know, in rock bands and then thought, oh, it might be

cool if I write a musical. I knew I wanted to write musicals from the time I was seven years old

you know. And so Broadway and the West End were always my two sort of, you know, magic goals

Like, those were always the things that I would, you know, like, dream about. You know, I would

dream about having a show, you know, play Broadway with the marquee at the theater and then about how like the marquee would change on the West End, you know, because the theaters like the front of the theaters are so different. And so for me to have have a show play, play the West End is just so it's, you know, I can't even put it into words. It's, it's truly a dream come true. But, you know, just playing the other palace, that was also a dream come true. You know, I, I'm, I

All I want is for my work to be seen by the largest number of people possible

And so to me, it was just as exciting to be at the Other Palace

which is such a small, intimate, cool space, as it is to be at the Shaftesbury

which is enormous and this classic West End theater that comes with so much history and legacy

But yeah, it's all just beyond exciting. It's incredible. Can't believe it

And in terms of the show itself, you know, it could perhaps be described as what happens when Little Shop of Horrors meets Nintendo and Be More Chill is its kind of love child

Would you say that's kind of a fair description or how would you describe the show

Oh, I think so. Yeah, that feels fair. I mean, it definitely is

It definitely owes a lot to Little Shop. Little Shop was the first musical I ever saw

and so I just feel like I have Little Shop in my bones

as a writer and it comes out sometimes more than others and I think it definitely came out in the writing a bit more chill but yeah I mean any sort of you know teen high school you know teen coming of age comedy mixed with unexpected and intense sci elements

You know, I always feel like it's, I used to, you know, in New York, I would talk about this all the time

but the people sort of surrounding the show felt like it wasn't a good comparison to make

But I always think of it as like, it feels like a, you know

like if like an after school special, you know, had a baby with like a Black Mirror episode

you know, it feels like it's like a very sort of like heartwarming episode of Black Mirror

I think. Fantastic. And of course, one of the like, you know, highlights of its Broadway journey

was, of course, your Tony nomination for Best Original Score. Is that kind of, is it life

changing as an artist like to be known then as tony award nominee joe iconis or or not so much

oh i don't know i don't it's not you know it's um no actually is the answer it's not life changing

it's very nice when anyone when anyone you know likes the stuff that you do it's a nice

a nice pat on the back and and in the case of you know be more chill and and 20 words and things like

that at the time, the only thing I was concerned about was, was, you know, trying to rack up

nominations in a way that could potentially help our show live longer, you know, like that's the

element of all of this stuff that, that it's very true. It's, you know, sometimes having things where

you're able to perform on a, you know, on a Tony telecast, it can really bump up ticket sales and

it can help a show's life. And so that's sort of where my brain was at the time. But it's, it's

really nice. And, you know, it's like, I guess it's helpful for other people because now it says

you know, Tony Nomenico, I kind of, before my name, I'm definitely the same me, you know

the writing, the writing is the same, the trajectory of my, of my writing and my creative

development will remain, you know, the same. It will keep moving forward. But now I have

you know, those, the three, three words before my, my name. And so hopefully it just means that I

hopefully I get better jobs, hopefully people trust me more and let me keep making my weirdo musicals populated

with misfits and outcasts. That's all I want, so hopefully it helps that

But it's nice to see the two feet still firmly on the ground. That's good to see

And can I tell you what, when I saw the show, even before it started, can I tell you what I really liked? What

always dread when I go in theatre and I'm the youngest there and I'm always like oh where you

know where are the young people you know I don't want this to die out and when I when I saw Be More

Chill you know there were so many young teens in the audience and I thought how fantastic because

it can it can really work as like a gateway musical you know for young people that have

never been and then they get wrapped up in the you know the phenomenon the online phenomenon of

be more chill and then go on to discover you know more and more shows and become you know get bitten

by the theater bug and become fans do you see it yourself as as the kind of gateway musical as well

oh 100 and i you know i'm that's the thing that i'm the most proudest of with all of the be more

chill stuff the fact that young people you know i mean the show the young people are responsible

for the shows the show existing uh but the fact that young people have embraced the show

passionately and that the show attracts a younger crowd to the theater

As I said, I'm someone who grew up loving musical theater passionately and I'm a writer

who even though I feel like a lot of my work can be described as very contemporary or edgy or whatever I think my work is super traditional and being more chill even though you know it very sort of techno and it about you know mind control devices

And it's like wild in your face, maximalist pop extravaganza. The bones of the show are so traditional musical comedy

You know, when we started writing the show, we set out to write something that felt like Dan Yankees, that felt like, you know, a musical comedy from the 60s with, you know, the romantic lead and the sidekicks and songs that were really classically structured musical theater songs

And so what I love about young people coming to be more chill is that they're coming to this show that's a really classic musical

You know, it's not it's nothing, you know, it's not it's not sort of trying to reinvent the form

It's not a show that's like this is a musical for people who hate musicals. You know, Be More Chirve is a show for people who love musicals

And so I get excited that, you know, that young people dig it and respond to that and respond to, you know, they respond to things like Michael in the bathroom, which is just that, you know, there could not be a more theater and musical theater song

And so it really fills my heart with joy to think of young people going to Be More Chill and then investigating other musicals and just getting, you know, bitten by the bug, whether they know they've been or not

And I suppose young people all across the world, hopefully soon, will be able to see the show, you know, on the screen

I believe, you know, the film adaptation is in the works. I believe you're executive producing as well

Can you give the fans any sort of update about the film adaptation from the 20th century

Yeah, we've actually changed the name of the show for the movie and we changed it to Dear Evan Hansen

And the movie is going to be released in the fall, winter. And it has new songs, new story

Yeah. It's going to be great. Yeah. No, I can't. I can say literally nothing

Ben Platt will be thanking you for that plug. Yeah. Yeah. yeah I'm just trying but he like you know he needs it Ben Platt needs my help so I'm just trying to

like plug plug as much as possible um but yeah I know it's the you know the movie um yeah in the

works and I literally can't say anything and you know I'm like I'm I'm very much like I'm like a

theater guy you know and I'm I could not be a more New York centric human being uh but you know I've

like dabbled in the the you know Hollywood movie stuff um a little bit in the past couple years and

it's and it's cool and I like it a lot but I still I'm just like I don't want to do anything to to

make those people angry at me you know I'm just gonna like I'm saying I'm I'm not saying nothing

but uh but excited excited for being more chill to be on a screen because it's you know the so

many of the inspirations for the show were things like John Carpenter movies and and you know

invaders from Mars movies from the 50s. And so it had all these filmic references to begin with

So I think that it actually makes sense for it to be a movie. You know, sometimes I feel like you

see these musical movies and you're like, oh, it's this is a this is a movie because it was a popular

musical and and people somewhere got excited about the brand of the musical, you know, having its next

life on a screen. And it feels a little bit cynical. And I my hope is that with, you know

know be more chill people will see it and be like oh right this makes sense this is a movie because

it's you know because it that's that's in its dna the the cinematic universe you know yeah and back

to the to the west end finally so hopefully social distancing restrictions are going to vanish into

the night on the 19th of july hopefully um so what what are your sort of summarizing hopes for this these these 10 weeks here in the West End

Oh, I mean, I hope that I hope that it that I hope that people come to be more chill on the West End and and feel connected to something

You know, the show is the show is about, you know, people who are who are trying to connect with it with each other and don't necessarily have the tools to do so

You know, that's what it was about before anything happened in the world

And now I just feel like it's, you know, this idea of actually connecting with with other human beings

And, you know, sometimes in a literal way is something that fills so much in everyone's mind

And so I'm just so happy that this musical that I helped create is playing in a theater that will allow people to come and have a communal experience again

I think it would have been so thrilling in any time, but the fact that we're one of the first shows back and the fact that the messages of the show are the messages of the show

and the fact that the show, you know, ends with all of the characters, you know

and that the whole cast who look like actual human beings who walk the earth

you know, who don't look like musical theater robots. It ends with them, you know, having a dance party and sort of celebrating their misfit-ness

It just makes me so happy that this could potentially be so many people's first shows back

And I hope that, like, the joy of the show and the celebratory vibe of the show

communicates and travels into the house and infects the audience. Yeah, and that's it

I'm just so thrilled that B'More Chill is on a stage and is alive

Fantastic. Thank you so much for joining me today, Joe. I wish you the best

with the rest of its run here and for all your future

West End transfers. Yeah, first of many. I just have to say, because it's so weird

So right now, I'm in New Jersey. I'm in Red Bank, New Jersey at the Theatre, Two River Theatre, where B.M. Warchul started

And because my wife and I and a bunch of friends, including George Salazar and Eric Lamer

people who are in B.M. Warchul, we did two weeks of outdoor concerts at this theatre

And so we're leaving in an hour. But right now, like, I'm literally in the theater housing, like, where they put us up, that I've stayed in when I wrote and worked on Be More Chill

And so I'm, like, sitting, like, at a desk where I wrote, like, stuff for Be More Chill in 2015

And now I'm doing it. You feel like you're in a time loop. Yeah. You're in, like, an episode of Doctor Who

Truly. Truly. And it's just, it's, like, it's for real. It's the weirdest thing

And it's the ultimate, like, if you would have told me in 2015, sitting literally where I'm sitting right now

that I would, you know, one day not be like writing lyrics for the script song at this desk

but doing an interview about the West End premiere of Be More Chill

after a global pandemic. I don't know what I would have done. I probably just would have collapsed

And so I just needed to share that. Yeah, fantastic. Well, thanks again so much, Joe

And yeah, wish you all the best. Thank you so much. Be More Chill is currently running through to the 5th of September

here at the Shaftesbury. So why not listen to the voices in your head

and book yourselves in for countless megabytes of fun-filled musical theatre. See you next time, folks, on Broadway World UK