I have always been an insane fan of musical theater, ever since I was really young and now I’ve become a crazy fan of our Lincoln Theater. They have performed several shows this year but honestly, Be More Chill is the show that stood out the most to me. At the start, Be More Chill might look like your typical high school musical but five minutes in, you’ll realize it is much more than that. Its genre is like a cross between a coming of age story and a sort of sci-fi horror movie. 

Be More Chill follows Jeremy Heere, played by senior, Izaiah Gutierrez, your average invisible high schooler just trying to survive; unpopular, crushing hard on a girl who doesn’t want him and is NEVER invited to parties. So, when a kid at school tells him about the “squip”, a pill-sized supercomputer that implants in your brain and coaches you on how to be cool, Jeremy does what any desperate teenager would do: He takes it.

At first, the “squip” does everything Jeremy could dream it could do, he is rising through the social ranks, girls are actually noticing him but then things start going wrong, and suddenly it’s not so fun anymore. 

There’s a sort of whiplash between hilarious and genuinely emotional that the play has. The story builds slowly, and before you realize it you care about these characters. My personal favorite song was “Micheal in the Bathroom”, Michael, played by 12th grader Keiliana Manglicmot. She did an amazing job delivering the song passionately and powerfully.  

All the songs were great, with just the right amount of humor mixed into each line. The audience (including me) was captivated at all times. The time flew by as the actors worked their butts off to give the performance of the year!