Be More Chill - The Other Palace

I don't remember any moving columns.

I enjoyed this. For me, a five star production of a three star musical, that hits it's teen core audience's buttons hard, but lacks crossover appeal.

Some spoilers follow. . .

For me, the best teen shows have cross-over appeal, whereby even if you have aged into the realisation that there's nothing wrong with being a "loser," there's some other narrative thread thrown in to interest you.

So, "Dear Evan Hansen" may be about the pain of loserdom, but it's also a thriller. Ditto "Heather's," which is similarly about trying to avoid loserdom, but is also a hilarious social satire.

This show has no crossover. It's pure undiluted teen angst. The sci-fi elements are not developed to engage the brain, as they easily could have been, had, say, the AI acquired an element of humanity, like Hal in 2001, for example. But no, it's just a plot device.

Indeed, this show is so plotted and deviced, that it lacks the lackadaisical charm of another recent pure teen show at the same theatre, "Eugenius."

And that brings me to another problem I have with this show. Where Eugenius humanised multiple characters of both sexes (think how loveable and relateable BOTH Rob Houchen AND Laura Baldwin were, with the points of view of both characters respected, and the tender cores of both characters revealed), this show only humanises the men, rendering the females principally as comic characters.

I mean, I don't wholly object to this, as in this production, all the best laughs lie with these female caricatures, and some superb comic actors milk these caricatures for big laughs.

Comic caricatures cue laughs by speaking and moving at a different pace from fully rounded humans, so Eloise Davies' Brooke milks big laughs from slow spaced out drug-addled line deliveries; Miracle Chance's Christine slows down even further into bug-eyed sloth-like zombiedom, and Millie O'Connell speaks in a state of constant staccato attack, pouncing aggressively on words to milk laughs from her inner crazy. Indeed, she got the single biggest laugh of the night in one monstrously unpredictable outburst.

So yeah, these caricatures made me laugh loudly, and I loved it! But where are the quiet moments for these female characters, where is their roundedness, their human moment? Why don't any of the women get a "Michael in the Bathroom" song?

This song is the one SOLID GOLD song in the show, and it's got nothing to do with the calculated "Weird Science" sci-fi shenanigans: it's just one lonely confused boy abandoned by his friend in the bathroom at a party. It's this kind of real rounded human vulnerability that allows Blake Patrick Anderson, as Michael, to own the show. And he does own it. The teens behind me in Row C ended the show by saying how Michael was their favourite character, how much they loved him. And it's plainly because his character is allowed to live a real relateable human life in a way no female character does.

Scott Folan, as the principal lead, doesn't get a song as good as this song, but his set-up is a wonderful expression of a very real teen fear about being an outcast, and Folan is terrific, his nervous energy channeled into his unique and believable line deliveries, such that you care about his character.

Anyway, the ensemble deliver everything that is asked of them and more. But ultimately, the show is hit and miss, because too often (Michael's big song excepted), the characters are mere pawns in a mechanistic teen plot and there is no crossover appeal.

One redeeming factor to the mechanical nature of the plot is that the terrific Stewart Clarke is at the centre of it. While he doesn't get to emote and break hearts the way he did in the "The Rink" and "Return of the Soldier," he does bring some comic lift and charisma to his role as "The Squip in the Not-so-technicolor Silvercoat" lol.

Overall, the actresses milked the laughs and the actors milked the feels, but I would have liked more of both.

3 and a half stars for a wonderfully cast and directed production of a show mostly made for teens.

Does Stewart Clarke remove any clothes? That’s all I wanna know about.

I’m not going to go then. Silent protest.

Really wanted to love this as I love the soundtrack however there was just something missing from this production for me. Can’t fault the cast, brilliant vocals - think it was just a weak book? First act seemed to take ages to get to the point with a much stronger second. Jeremy seemed quite an underwritten character imo with Michael much more rounded characterisation with of course the 11 o’clock number. Female cast woefully underused.
Set cheap with a digital screen depicting the scenes. Not exactly crystal clear display with blurring at the edges. This could’ve been a deliberate design choice but I noticed the same at Falsettos there recently. Really cheapened the overall effect to that of a high school production. And the evil Squip’s costume was very distracting - If the designer was going for sci fi Matrix I’m afraid all I could see was a monochrome Joseph’s coat.

When you’re distracted by the set and costumes this is not a good sign.
This type of ‘teen geek angsty’ musical has been done much better - 13, Loserville to name a couple of examples. This seemed derivative.
The mostly younger audience were well behaved (no singing or phones) when we saw it and very appreciative so I’m sure it will be a popular word of mouth hit. Can’t see it being worthy of a transfer though I just don’t think that the book or the majority of the characters are strong enough in the way Heathers was
Creatives were in on our row, not much scribbling done so I’m guessing the show is where it needs to be.
One comment for the director if he reads here. A giant smurf like bobble hat worn inside the theatre really isn’t that great theatre etiquette. You may have seen the show multiple times but the poor people sitting behind you hadn’t 😂

From the second row, it looked like people at the front had a pin, but I couldn’t tell you what was on it.

Could anyone tell me if they are selling any merchandise? Specifically posters? I have emailed The Other Palace but to date have has no response.

Thanks in advance.

Saw this last night and agree about both!! Super fun show that will do really well. 8/10 go see it !!! If only for the guy who plays Michael!

We’re in the back row for this. Any high up business that we’re likely to miss or is it a clear view?

I found this a strange one. I really e joyed it but it's a bit bonkers isn't it. Some good performances.

At the matinee yesterday in a sold-out performance.
Have known the cast recording for ages and to see the songs staged was simply wonderful.
How to describe this? It’s a zany,crazy mash-up of Little Shop,the Faustian legend,DEH and Weird Science with a dollop of Shakespeare,Halloween and God knows what else thrown in for good measure...and it works!
Great atmosphere in the audience and we loved every second of it.
It’s a very,very entertaining and hilarious show,delivered with gusto by a terrific cast.